SYDNEY: The Armenian National Committee of Australia's (ANC-AU) Annual Gala has been sold out for over a week, and the 300 attendees at Doltone House Hyde Park and those watching on a special Facebook Livestream will witness the Armenian-Australian community honour Mr. John Alexander MP, Dr. Hugh McDermott MP and Mr. James Robins.
With the Republic of Artsakh recently invaded by the combined forces of Azerbaijan and Turkey fuelled by Islamist jihadi terrorists, a fitting keynote address will be virtually delivered by former Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords, the Rt. Hon. Baroness Caroline Cox of Queensbury.
Baroness Cox is currently a crossbench Member of the British House of Lords, although her parliamentary career began when she entered Parliament in 1983 as a Member of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government. She has always extensively campaigned for a multitude of humanitarian causes impacting many countries and peoples, which led her to founding HART in 2004. Significantly, Baroness Cox has been the leading international voice calling for international recognition of the rights to self-determination of the indigenous Armenians of the Republic of Artsakh.
"These are existential times for the Armenian Republic of Artsakh and we are seeing the outcome when the international community fails to act," said ANC-AU Executive Director Haig Kayserian. "This is why we are fortunate to have a keynote speaker in Baroness Cox, who has led the calls for international recognition of Artsakh."
The annual fundraiser for the peak public affairs committee of the Armenian-Australian community on Saturday 14th November 2020 will donate the evening's ticket proceeds to the All-Armenia Fund's Artsakh Appeal, and include a stellar list of guests including honourees Alexander and McDermott, as well as Federal Senators Deb O'Neill and Rex Patrick, Federal Member for North Sydney Trent Zimmerman, former Senator and Defence Minister of Australia, Graham Richardson, as well as state parliamentarians including Jonathan O'Dea, Walt Secord, Rev. Fred Nile and their former colleague Amanda Fazio, along with leaders of Armenian, Indigenous, Assyrian, Greek, Kurdish and Jewish organisations.
Inaugural winner of The Voice Armenia in 2013 and finalist in The Voice Australia 2020, Masha Mnjoyan will grace the stage with a set dedicated to Artsakh, accompanied by Armenian-Australian classical guitarist Sako Dermenjian and keyboardist Mathew Thomson. She will also perform a duet with up-and-coming talent, Charlie Tchetchenian, who recently performed with Michael Buble.
The ANC-AU will present the 2020 ANC-AU Freedom Award, which is the organisation's highest honour, to Federal Member for Bennelong John Alexander for his unyielding and exemplary dedication and advocacy promoting justice for the Armenian Genocide, peace and freedom for the Republic of Artsakh and all issues of importance to Armenian-Australians.
Alexander has been a long-standing advocate of the Armenian Genocide and a champion in defending the self-determination of indigenous Armenians in the Artsakh Republic. In May 2019, he became one of the inaugural members of the Australian Friends of Artsakh network and, in September 2019, he made history as the first Federal Australian parliamentarian to visit the Republic of Artsakh.
Alexander’s visit earned him a place alongside many local and international political leaders on the persona non grata blacklist of Azerbaijan's dictator, Ilham Aliyev, which he recently referred to as "an honour".
The ANC-AU will present the Armenian Community's Friend of the Year Award to NSW Member for Prospect, Hugh McDermott for his championing efforts in achieving recognition of the Republic of Artsakh by the largest legislative chamber in the largest Australian state, the News South Wales Legislative Assembly, as well as his ongoing support to issues of importance to Armenian-Australians.
McDermott, a member of the NSW Armenia-Australia Parliamentary Friendship Group, was also an inaugural member of the Australian Friends of Artsakh network and a Baku-blacklisted visitor to Artsakh as part of the first Federal-led delegation in 2019.
The ANC-AU's Ben Bagdikian Media Award – recognising those in media who have had the greatest impact raising awareness concerning matters important to Armenian-Australians – will be handed to James Robins, who is a British/New Zealand award-winning journalist and historian. His work has appeared in The New Republic, The Guardian, the TLS, the New Statesman, and Prospect.
He authored When We Dead Awaken: Australia, New Zealand, and the Armenian Genocide, and this award is for Robins' work as the writer, producer and host of "The Great Crime", a podcast about the Armenian Genocide, taking an in-depth look at the extermination of the Armenian people from 1915 to 1923 and beyond.
This award, being handed out for the second time after broadcaster Alan Jones became the original recipient in 2019, is named after Armenian Genocide survivor Ben Bagdikian, who was featured in Steven Spielberg’s film The Post (2017), recounting his time as assistant managing editor of The Washington Post where excerpts of the Pentagon Papers were published, exposing classified material regarding US involvement in the military campaign in Vietnam – despite strong opposition from the Nixon administration.
Bagdikian famously stated: "... the (only) way to assert the right to publish is to publish."
Robins will deliver a video acceptance speech from his home in London.
The Gala will feature an unprecedented list of artwork, memorabilia and valuables for auction, to help raise grassroots funds to accelerate ANC-AU's efforts to advocate for the rights to self-determination of the Republic of Artsakh, Armenian Genocide recognition and the greater Armenian-Australian community.
A feature on the ANC-AU Youth Advocates cohort of 2020 will also premiere at the Gala, fresh from the group’s exploits advocating for Australian recognition of the Republic of Artsakh in the Federal Parliament during this year's Advocacy Week.
For those who don't have tickets to attend the Doltone House Hyde Park event, please tune in to a special Livestream of the ANC-AU Annual Gala at the Facebook page of the Armenian National Committee of Australia (click here) on Saturday 14th November 2020 around 7:30pm (Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time/AEDT). Those with tickets are expected to arrive at 7:00pm.
