SYDNEY and CANBERRA: The Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) brought a highly successful Advocacy Week to a close by raising a record $100,000 at its Annual Banquet at Miramare Gardens last Friday, 4th December 2015.
At the gala event, which featured a keynote from International Guest of Honour Davit Ishkhanyan (visiting Nagorno Karabakh Member of Parliament), outgoing Member for North Sydney and former Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia, Joe Hockey was awarded the ANC Freedom Award and the Republic of Armenia Ministry of the Diaspora Gold Medal.
Member for Bennelong, John Alexander was awarded ANC Australia's Armenian-Australian Community's Friend of the Year Award.
ANC Australia Advocacy Week featured a delegation, which included Ishkhanyan and the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh's Permanent Representative to Australia Kaylar Michaelian, visiting Canberra and advocating the rights to self-determination for Armenians in Artsakh in over 20 meetings over two days in the Federal Parliament.
"This was our most successful Advocacy Week yet, as highlighted by Mr. John Alexander's speech before question time on Wednesday, when he acknowledged the presence of Mr. Ishkhanyan, a visiting MP from Nagorno-Karabakh, in the House of Representatives," commented ANC Australia Executive Administrator, Arin Markarian.
"During our visit to Canberra, we were able to explain the critical security issues the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh faces against its war-mongering neighbour, Azerbaijan. And we were able to advocate for the rights to self-determination for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh," added Markarian.
Hockey, of Armenian descent, was awarded the ANC Freedom Award for his career consistently advocating for Armenian Genocide recognition by the Parliament of Australia.
ANC Australia's Vache Kahramanian said on stage: "Mr. Hockey has visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, planted a tree in honour of the 1.5 million Armenians who were massacred in 1915, and spent his career advocating for Federal recognition of this crime against humanity."
The ANC Freedom Award is presented to individuals who have made tremendous contributions toward recognition of the genocide and who have pursued other issues of importance to the Armenian communities.
This was the first awarding of the Freedom Award in Australia, however earlier recipients in other countries have included renowned lawyer Robert Morgenthau and the Morgenthau family, critically acclaimed author Chris Bohjalian, U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John M. Evans, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and current U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Dr. Samantha Power, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, the late U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, former U.S. Senator Robert Dole, former U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole, and Baroness Caroline Cox.
The Gold Medal of the Armenian Diaspora was also awarded to Hockey, with a recorded message from the Republic of Armenia's Minister of the Diaspora, Ms Hranush Hakobyan.
Hakobyan said: "I am very pleased with the fact that you have always had the will and determination and have maintained your principles, regardless your position and have even been able to maintain your image in the most difficult political situations."
Hockey said he was "extremely humbled" by these surprise honours. He promised to collect the awards bestowed upon him by the Republic of Armenia personally in Yerevan.
"I failed in achieving Federal recognition of the Armenian Genocide, but I remained consistent and I never turned by back on what was a very difficult issue to advocate at times in my career," Hockey said from the podium.
He added: "I believe we will achieve Federal recognition of the Armenian Genocide in Australia, and Turkey will come to terms with its past."
Alexander received the ANC Australia Friend of the Year award for bringing attention to the plight of Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh and for advocating on behalf of Armenian-Australians for recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
"Thank you for this honour. I will always advocate for truth and justice and I appreciate the opportunity to do so on behalf of a community that has given so much to my electorate of Bennelong and the Australian nation," announced Alexander.
Ishkhanyan used his keynote to thank the Armenian-Australian community, led by ANC Australia, who achieved NSW state recognition of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Nagorno Karabakh MP said: "I have no doubt that all of you spend every day and every second with the people of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, and promoting their concerns at every opportunity you have."
"I would like to pass on the particular appreciation of our Republic, to those in power in New South Wales, who worked to ensure that the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh and the rights to self-determination of the native Armenians of that region are recognised by your Legislative Council."
"Furthermore, I would like to thank - on behalf of our Republic - those that have brought Federal attention to the Nagorno Karabakh cause. Just a few days ago, Mr. John Alexander stood in Parliament after meeting with me and addressed the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh for what it is, a Republic, and a democracy, unlike the dictatorship of our neighbours and attackers for many years, Azerbaijan."
Ishkhanyan added: "The only way to truly solve the Nagorno Karabakh crisis is to recognise the rights to self-determination of the people of Nagorno Karabakh, and therefore the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh. There is no other option. This is the only way to guarantee safety for our people. And this is what our people, as the natives of the land known as Artsakh, deserve."
Allow me to make a few clarifications:"The Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR) was declared within accordance with international law, and its borders are non-negotiable. Historically, there has never existed an Azerbaijan within what are NKR’s current borders. The rights to self-determination that founded the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh are based on the most democratic principles."
He declared: "There is no way Karabakh will ever form part of Azerbaijan. This is what the people of Nagorno Karabakh decided overwhelmingly, and almost unanimously."
$100,000 was raised from the grassroots community members in attendance to support ANC Australia's advocacy efforts in 2016, which will be focused on justice for the Armenian Genocide, advancing humanitarian concerns on behalf of Syrian-Armenians, and recognition of the rights to self-determination for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.
For more pictures of the ANC Australia 2015 Banquet, courtesy of ARMENIA MEDIA, please CLICK HERE.
