John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Several weeks ago the proud community of Armenian-Australians in my electorate of Bennelong commemorated the 28th anniversary of the Sumgait Pogroms. Steeped in the dark shadows of the genocide committed against their ancestors, from 1915-1923, by the former Ottoman Empire, the Armenian people are proud of their heritage and passionate about their community's cultural traditions.

In February 1988 Armenians living in the region of Nagorno Karabakh, which was under the administrative control of Azerbaijan at the time, held peaceful demonstrations as a call to be reunited with Armenia after almost 70 years of oppressive rule.

In response to these demonstrations, as an act of collective punishment, Azerbaijani mobs viciously and systematically attacked and assaulted the Armenians of Sumgait. Hundreds of innocent civilians were brutally murdered and injured in horrific ways, including torture and burning, as well as the rape of women and young girls. Subsequent anti-Armenian Pogroms in Baku and Kirovabad saw a once thriving population of around 450,000 Armenians in Azerbaijan totally disappear. This led to conflict and tensions in Nagorno Karabakh, which continue to this day. Over 30,000 people have died on both sides of this conflict and over one million people have been displaced. The crimes committed in Sumgait were never adequately prosecuted by the then Soviet or Azerbaijani authorities, with allegations flourishing that some of those who committed these crimes went on to serve in high positions in the Azeri government. I have spoken in this place previously of Azerbaijan's poor human rights record and systematic crackdown on freedoms we all take for granted. In recent years, the world watched in horror the case of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani army captain who murdered a sleeping Armenian lieutenant with an axe when both were attending a NATO Partnership for Peace program in Hungary. Despite Safarov's conviction and life sentence, upon extradition to Azerbaijan he was received as a 'national hero' by the President himself, who immediately issued a pardon and reinstated his army rank.

This year, the world will celebrate the 25th anniversary of independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, and next month we will commemorate 101 years since the start of the Armenian genocide. These are stories that do not dominate the attention of our media, of this parliament or even of our school history classes. Yet the atrocities committed against the Armenian people over the past century deserve our regular attention; and the dignified and stoic way the Armenian people and their descendants have not just survived but continue to flourish, as they proudly celebrate their cultural traditions, deserves our enduring respect.

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