Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise to talk about issues of concern to the Armenian community in Australia. Australia has greatly benefited from having many Armenians come here, but this has been driven by much conflict and upheaval. Armenians have been subject to a history marred by invasion and occupation over centuries, including by Persians, Turks and the Soviet Union. In modern times, we have witnessed the atrocity of the Armenian genocide during World War I. Subsequently, Armenia was swallowed by the Soviet Union and became the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic before finally declaring its independence in 1991 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

It is pleasing that the Armenian people now have their own recognised state, but the state of Armenia does not comprise all of the area that has traditionally been occupied by Armenians. In this respect, I want to speak of Nagorno Karabakh. This province is located at the eastern end of the Armenian plateau. The historical roots of the Armenian people of this area can be traced back to the sixth century BC. These Armenian peoples have been subject over the centuries to war, conflict and invasion. Russian Bolsheviks and then Stalinist Russia and the Soviet Union played a large part in the more recent history of this region. In the early 1920s, Stalin placed Nagorno Karabakh under Azerbaijani rule.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union created a vacuum for conflict to escalate in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The struggle resulted in a period of war from 1988 to 1994. In 1991 Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh declared themselves an independent state. It was not until 1994, however, that a ceasefire was reached. The ceasefire has not eliminated hostilities, with continued conflict and casualties. The OSCE Minsk Group—chaired by the US, Russia and France—is mediating efforts to negotiate a full settlement.

The rights of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh derive from what is known as the Helsinki Final Act, which in article VIII provides for the rights of peoples to self-determination and says that:

… all peoples always have the right, in full freedom, to determine, when and as they wish, their internal and external political status, without external interference, and to pursue as they wish their political, economic, social and cultural development.

I support the application of the principle of self-determination for Nagorno Karabakh. I recognise the struggle and courage of the Armenian peoples of this region over many centuries. A key aim of the Armenian National Committee of Australia is to raise awareness of the status of Nagorno Karabakh, and I am therefore very pleased to be able to speak on this issue during advocacy week of the Armenian National Committee of Australia.