SYDNEY: The Hon. Walt Secord NSW MLC who recently became the first Australian Labor Party MP to visit the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh fired back at reports in the Sydney Morning Herald that he had invoked the “wrath of the government of Azerbaijan” by once again declaring his support for the rights of Karabakh Armenians to self determination.
“I make no apologies for visiting the region and showing my support for Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora, expanding my knowledge of the Armenian Genocide and visiting Artsakh,” Secord said.
"I believe that Nagorno Karabakh Armenians should have the right to determine their own political and economic future.”
After Secord’s return to Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald reported - in the article “MP’s separatist sympathy prompts ire in Azerbaijan” – that officials from the Azerbaijani embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara, complained to the Australian mission in the same city about his visit to Karabakh.
Unfazed by the commotion, the NSW MP reaffirmed his commitment to support the Armenians of Karabakh.
“At the next meeting of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Armenia, I will be urging my colleagues to consider an invitation to return to the region,” he said.
ANC Australia Executive Director Varant Meguerditchian thanked Secord for his stance regarding the issue of Nagorno Karabakh.
“All peoples have a right to determine their own political and economic future, and the Karabakh Armenians are no different,” said Meguerditchian.
“We thank Mr Secord for leading the way and remaining resolute in the face of efforts to deny the Karabakh Armenians’ right to independence.”
The full text of statement released by the Hon. Walt Secord NSW MLC regarding the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh is below:
30th January 2012
The Hon Walt Secord MLC Parliament of New South Wales Member of Legislative Council STATEMENT ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH (ARTSAKH)
NSW State Labor MP and NSW Parliamentary Friends of Armenia deputy co-chair, Mr Walt Secord today defended his December 2011 visit to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).
Mr Secord said he would like to visit again and urged his parliamentary colleagues to see for themselves the lives of Armenians in the region.
Mr Secord was responding to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald – “MP's separatist sympathy prompts ire in Azerbaijan”.
“I make no apologies for visiting the region and showing my support for Armenia, the Armenian Diaspora, expanding my knowledge of the Armenian genocide and visiting Artsakh,” Mr Secord said.
"I believe that Nagorno Karabakh Armenians should have the right to determine their own political and economic future.
“Further, at the next meeting of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Armenia, I will be urging my colleagues to consider an invitation to return to the region.
“For the record, a number of other State parliamentarians including Liberal State MP for Davidson, Mr Jonathan O’Dea (May 2010) and Liberal State MP for Ryde, Mr Victor Dominello, who is now a State Minister (February 2011) have spoken on the rights of Nagorno Karabakh Armenians.
“Further, Federal Liberal MP for Bradfield, Mr Paul Fletcher spoke in the Federal Parliament in November 2010 in support of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“As I said earlier in Armenia, while official recognition of the Mountainous Karabakh Republic is a matter for the federal Australian government, I felt I had a duty as the co-deputy chair of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Armenia to see Armenia and the Mountainous Karabakh Republic first-hand.
“It was a seven hour trip each way by four wheel drive through a mountainous region.
“My visit to Armenia was part of my personal study tour. I also visited the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland; the National Genocide Museum and Monument in Yerevan, Armenia; Israel, including its capital Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Eilat, Masada, Sderot and the Galilee and the Palestinian Territories and its capital Ramallah and Jericho as well as Iraq.
“In Iraqi Kurdistan, I travelled to Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Halabja, the site within 10 kilometres of the Iranian border where Saddam Hussein launched his horrific chemical gas attacks on the Kurdish population in March 1988, murdering 5,000 Kurds,” Mr Secord said.
