SYDNEY: Following the third Australian Parliamentary Delegation to the Republic of Armenia, led by the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU), four New South Wales parliamentarians have risen in their respective chambers following their return from the trip to bring awareness to Azerbaijan’s abhorrent aggression against Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) over the past ten months.
The delegation, which took place 25-28 September 2023, provided participating New South Wales and Victorian state parliamentarians a unique insight into the on-the-ground developments through meetings with high-level government officials, as well as a first-hand experience of the ethnic cleansing of over 100,000 Armenians from Nagorno Karabakh during their visit to border village, Goris.
Tim James MP, Co-Chair of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Armenia who co-led the Parliamentary Delegation, rose in the Legislative Assembly and said: “I saw first-hand the human toll and tragedy wrought by ethnic cleansing: children, parents, grandparents, people of all ages and stages evicted from their homeland.”
“Peaceful people had to flee their homes, some with little more than the clothes they were wearing, having been attacked, threatened and, in some cases, seeing family members killed or captured. It was heartbreaking,” added the Member for Willoughby.
For Hugh McDermott MP, this was his second visit to the Republic of Armenia and his first as Co-Chair of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Armenia. McDermott said, “Sadly, the trip was overshadowed by the crimes of Azerbaijan and its actions to ethnically cleanse 120,000 Armenians from their indigenous ancestral homeland of Artsakh—or, as the Turks call it, Nagorno?Karabakh. When the parliamentary delegation arrived in Yerevan, we were briefed that the Azerbaijani army was in control of the Nagorno?Karabakh region and was pushing to take the capital and seize control of all towns.”
Matt Cross MP, the Member for Davidson which home to thousands of Armenian-Australians, spoke of the desperation the people of Artsakh faced following Azerbaijan’s 24-hour military assault.
He said, “Sadly, the delegation did not visit the Republic of Artsakh. I acknowledge and recognise the Republic of Artsakh. The closest we got was a border town called Goris on Wednesday, 27 September. That was a confronting visit. At that stage, 30,000 people from Artsakh crossed the border into Armenia. We saw people of all ages, including children, mums and dads, and grandparents, many with all their belongings fitted to the car. They had everything from teddy bears and washing machines to clothes—everything members can think of. Many were so desperate to cross the border that, when they ran out of fuel, they used methylated spirits to complete the journey.”
Susan Carter MLC, elected to the Legislative Council in March 2023, was visiting the Republic of Armenia for the first time alongside Tim James MP, Matt Cross MP, Mark Coure MP, Ann-Marie Hermans MLC and Kim Wells MP.
Speaking about the beauty of Armenia, Carter acknowledged the troubling reality of life on the ground and said: “Armenia is a peaceful country, but the borders of its neighbouring ethnic Armenian Republic of Artsakh have been under constant attack for some years, and I saw the dreadful outcome of this constant tension as the Azerbaijanis rolled into Artsakh and its people fled. Its people are still fleeing, too scared to remain in their own homes. At least 100,000 ethnic Armenians have arrived in the border town of Goris. By way of scale, that is more than five times the total population of Goris, and the exodus has not stopped.”
Armenian National Committee of Australia Executive Director, Michael Kolokossian thanked the New South Wales parliamentarians for joining their Victorian counterparts, Kim Wells MP and Ann-Marie Hermans MP, for bringing much-needed attention to the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh.
“We are comforted by our allies' unwavering commitment, in light of fear-mongering tactics aimed at silencing them to speak about the atrocities they witnessed, to inform the broader Australian society about the ongoing hardships indigenous Armenians face in their ancestral homeland. Thank you.”
