Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Artsakh has been under attack and under a blockade by Azerbaijan for over 250 days now. There are 120,000 Armenians trapped there, often without access to electricity or medical and food supplies. There's only one road which leads between Artsakh and the rest of the world. It is known as the Lachin Corridor, and the local Armenians call it 'the road of life'. This road is being blockaded by Azerbaijan, and there has been an illegal military checkpoint established there, which violates the agreement between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia since 2020. Amnesty, the International Court of Justice and a series of genocide scholars have called this out for what it is—a potential attempt to repeat an Armenian genocide. This has caused great angst inside the Armenian community in Australia and in New South Wales, in particular. I have met with many members of that community who have enormous concerns about a second genocide.

Many of our key allies, including the US, Canada, Germany and the EU, have already called on Azerbaijan to end this blockade. We, Australia, are yet to do that. The shadow minister for foreign affairs, Senator Birmingham, has said that the coalition's position is that we are very concerned about the humanitarian impact, and we've called on Azerbaijan to open the Lachin Corridor. We are urging the government to join now with Australia's international allies, friends and partners and put more pressure on Azerbaijan to open the corridor and let the people of Armenia free, as they should be.