Your trusted source

On 19 September 2023, one year since Azerbaijan’s 24-hour military assault and ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, NSW Parliamentarians Tim James MP and Susan Carter MLC tabled separate Notices of Motion in their respective chambers slamming Azerbaijan and calling for pro-Armenian measures, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia(ANC-AU).

Tim James MP Member for Willoughby, moved the motion in the NSW Legislative Assembly, while his parliamentary colleague Susan Carter MLC , simultaneously tabled a motion in the NSW upper house, the Legislative Council.

Both parliamentarians who introduced the motion are members of the Australian Friends of Artsakh network who participated in the ANC-AU’s third Parliamentary Delegation to the Republic of Armenia, which bore witness to the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Artsakh last year.

Both motions condemned Azerbaijan’s 24-hour military assault, called for the right of return of Armenians to Artsakh with enforceable international guarantees, called on Azerbaijan to release all Armenian political prisoners and cease the desecration of religious and cultural heritage in the region and for Australians to boycott COP29.

Representatives of the Armenian National Committee of Australia, who were present on the day hosting an exhibition on the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh in the NSW Parliament, welcomed the motions.
ANC-AU Executive Director Michael Kolokossian said, “Today is a sombre anniversary, one year since the church bells in Artsakh do not toll and the ancient Armenian dialect is no longer spoken in the highlands of the ancient Armenian homeland. Justice and accountability for the crime of ethnic cleansing is a necessity, and these motions aim to do just that.”