CANBERRA: Dr Arman Tatoyan, the former Human Rights Ombudsman of Armenia and founder of the
Centre for Law and Justice “Tatoyan” Foundation, touched down in Australia and immediately travelled to the nation's capital, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU).
Dr Tatoyan, who accepted an invitation from the ANC-AU to headline the organisation's annual Advocacy Week, will participate in a delegation conducting high-level meetings before meeting members of Sydney’s Armenian-Australian community at a Lecture event and the ANC-AU Annual Gala.
Armenia’s Human Rights Defender during Azerbaijan’s 44 days of attacks on the Republic of Artsakh will meet with several Federal politicians from both chambers of parliament, most specifically members of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee and Australia’s Foreign Affairs leadership. These meetings, and others, have been facilitated by the ANC-AU.
Dr Tatoyan will present an unseen report, prepared specifically for his trip to Australia, by his Centre for Law and Justice, which aims to expose Azerbaijan’s illegal invasion into the sovereign borders of the Republic of Armenia and the gross human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Aliyev regime’s latest assault against Armenia in September 2022.
On Tuesday, Dr Tatoyan––a professor at the American University of Armenia lecturing on Public Advocacy––will join the ANC-AU in leading an unprecedented number of young Armenian-Australian from Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, who will participate in the annual ANC-AU Youth Advocates program. The program will see them take part in a two-day advocacy crash course in the nation's capital whilst advancing the concerns of the Armenian-Australian community.
“This week's visit to Canberra has several goals, however, we are hopeful that Dr Arman Tatoyan’s presence will create greater awareness amongst Australian parliamentarians of Azerbaijan’s genocidal policies and muster further support for the Republics of Armenia and Artsakh,” said ANC-AU Executive Director, Michael Kolokossian.
“It will be a pleasure to advocate for justice on behalf of our community, who live with the plight of our compatriots in Armenia and Artsakh, alongside such a well-respected and internationally recognised figure who has been instrumental in amplifying the human rights concerns of our brothers and sisters in Armenia and Artsakh. Our ANC-AU team and ANC-AU Youth Advocates will benefit greatly from Dr Tatoyan’s wealth of experience and the value he will bring to our advocacy efforts,” added Kolokossian.
Later this week, Dr Tatoyan is expected to visit Sydney where the Armenian National Committee of Australia has announced a Lecture and Q&A event on Thursday 1st December 2022, 7:30pm at the Willoughby Uniting Church.
Dr Tatoyan will also be the international guest of honour at the ANC-AU Annual Gala on Saturday 3rd December 2022, which will celebrate the key public affairs achievements of our community and will be an opportunity for our community to show their appreciation for prominent figureheads in public life championing Armenian-Australian issues.
Dr Tatoyan expressed his intentions in a Facebook post to his followers.
“At the invitation of the Armenian National Committee of Australia, in the coming week I will have high-level meetings in Australia. I will also meet with the Armenian community leaders and youth,” Dr Tatoyan said.
“I will present the facts of the Azerbaijani criminal invasions in Armenia, the consequences of their armed deployments near the communities, on the roads, facts of the disrupted lives of the border residents, the policy of ethnic cleansing against the indigenous people of Artsakh, the Artsakh Armenians.”
“During the visit, I will also present the latest studies of the Center for Law and Justice ‘Tatoyan’ Foundation and, of course, the areas of the Foundation's activities,” he added.
