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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-02-03 Daily Xml
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Motions

Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (11:33): I move:

That this house—

(a) condemns the actions and belligerence of Azerbaijan towards the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh in commencing military action on 27 September 2020;

(b) notes the serious concerns that have been raised from Armenian-Australians regarding the existential threat to the indigenous Armenian population of the Republic of Artsakh by this military action and in any attempts by Azerbaijan to prevent the peaceful resettlement of the indigenous Armenian population following the agreement to a provisional ceasefire on 9 November 2020;

(c) notes the serious concerns raised by Armenian-Australians and independent international organisations regarding the risk of Azerbaijan destroying sites of global cultural and historical significance;

(d) condemns the actions of President Erdogan of Turkey and President Aliyev of Azerbaijan in their pursuit of a policy of Pan-Turkish nationalism, which has previously led to genocide and which now threatens the Armenian population of Artsakh with ethnic cleansing;

(e) calls on the federal government to condemn these attacks and advocate for the safety of security in Armenia and Artsakh in the context of international support for a stable and enduring peace settlement;

(f) recognises the right to self-determination of all peoples including those of the Republic of Artsakh and calls on the federal government to also recognise the Republic of Artsakh as the only permanent solution to the conflict to avoid further attempts of such military aggression; and

(g) notes that a version of this motion was agreed to by the NSW Legislative Assembly.

I am pleased to rise in the house today to move this motion and talk about an issue very dear to my heart, and that is the self-determination of the Armenian people. Armenians deserve the right to self-determination. They have earned it. They have earned it through the blood and sacrifice of 1.5 million innocents who were systematically murdered for one sole reason: they were Armenian.

I understand this desire. This year, Greece will celebrate its 200th year of independence from the same oppressors, the same murderers, the same tyrants who occupied the lands of my mother and father: the Ottoman Empire. Our two nations, along with the Assyrians, spilled blood because of our shared faith, our unique ethnicities, and because we stood in the way of tyranny, authoritarianism, expansionism and empire. There is also one other fundamental ingredient in that mix: we are Christians living in the land of our ancestors, sought after by conquerors.

This parliament has a proud history. I am glad, Mr Speaker, that you acknowledged the presence of former Speaker Atkinson in the strangers' gallery, because this parliament has a proud history of acknowledging the wrongs and injustices of the past. In 2009, as a backbencher I was proud to be part of the debate initiated by the former member for Spence to recognise the genocide of three ethnicities—Greek, Armenian and Assyrians—at the hands of the Turkish military. I hope today that again we can show the same courage and foresight as previous parliaments and acknowledge the current attempts by Turkey and their ally Azerbaijan to once again commit genocide, ethnic cleansing, in the traditional ancestral homes of the Armenian people.

I declare today, now in this place, my belief that Artsakh is Armenian. It is their home. Their connection to this land is not in dispute historically, factually or presently. What has occurred is from a playbook that we have all seen before. We saw it at the beginning of the last century in Asia Minor. We saw it again in Cyprus in 1974: the use of the military to kill, murder, rape, intimidate. To what end? To ethnically cleanse a people from their homes and their lands so that they flee. Why? Empire, expansionism, influence, territory.

We believe in the rule of law. The rule of law governs all we do. That is why we are here in the parliament. We have a question to answer, and that question is: do the Armenian people deserve justice? Do they deserve to reside on the lands of their fathers and mothers since the sixth century BC? The answer to that unequivocally is yes; it is historical truth. It is not something that they can separate from their being. It is who they are. My mother was from the longest inhabited city in Europe, Argos. I am as Argos as any other Hellene who lived there. There is nothing that I can do to remove myself from it, just as the Armenian people, just as the Kaurna people, whom we acknowledge every day, from this land.

So for us to deny their right to self-determination and ignore what has occurred is a travesty and an injustice, and as a people, as a state and as a parliament we need to speak up because our citizens are hurting. Our citizens are feeling pain and anguish. The consequences of this invasion are simple and devastating: they are death, family separations, murder, displacement, atrocities. But like I said, we have seen this before. Attack civilian populations with terror, cluster bombs, with weapons that are banned by civilised nations. Why? To get them to flee.

What occurred last year was an act of aggression. It was an attack started by Azerbaijan against Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh on 27 September. It was premeditated, it was preplanned, it was orchestrated and it was executed. Azerbaijan did not do so on their own. They did so with assistance and planning of a modern military power, the Republic of Turkey. Azerbaijan and Turkey are close allies. Their languages are similar, their faces are similar, their aspirations are similar.

I have no quarrel with the people of Azerbaijan. I am sure that many of them are just as horrified at the atrocities committed in their name as we are today, but the governments of those two countries do not fulfil what we would consider to be liberal democracies. Dissent in those countries is quashed and journalists are arrested and imprisoned. We have seen the desecration of churches and monasteries in Armenia. We have seen it in Turkey. We have seen it in Cyprus. It is the same playbook over and over again. I say, 'Enough.' It is time we speak out. It is time we say, 'That is not right.'

The atrocities that have been committed in Artsakh by the military of Azerbaijan include the use of Syrian mercenaries. The interesting point here that I wish to make, the reason I mention Syrian mercenaries, is that there are great powers outside of this local conflict that are intervening in this conflict for their own geopolitical reasons. The reason you would use mercenaries is the same as in Operation Attila, which was designed to commit atrocities in northern Cyprus. People—soldiers—were given orders to be brutal, to rape and to pillage. The same orders were given to these mercenaries: to be brutal; to target civilians, not military targets; weaponising of drones; cluster munitions. Towns and villages were razed to the ground.

I have read the reports of what occurred in Asia Minor. I am very proud to say to this house that my grandfather—my father's father—was part of the Hellenic army that sought to liberate many people of Asia Minor and was stationed in the city of Smyrna in the early part of the 20th century. He saw firsthand the atrocities that were committed. Of course, what we saw then is what we are seeing today: the vandalising of globally significant heritage sites. Monasteries, cultural institutions and cathedrals recognised by UNESCO as being of cultural significance throughout the world have been destroyed.

When this parliament recognised the genocide of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians, it took from 1915 to 2009 for this state to recognise what the whole world knew. American journalists on the ground saw the atrocities firsthand. Australian soldiers—South Australian soldiers—stationed in Asia Minor after World War I, saw these atrocities and reported them back. British officers saw these atrocities. French naval ships picked up fleeing Armenians and Assyrians. We know that it occurred, and it took nearly 100 years for us to recognise that injustice. Let's not wait another 100 years to recognise this injustice. Let's do it quickly; let's move quickly.

I want to congratulate my friend Gladys Berejiklian, whom I was proud to serve with as a treasurer—who has been demoted to the position of Premier from Treasurer. She has gone on—

The Hon. V.A. Chapman: Better than a backbencher like you.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: I am not a backbencher; I am a shadow minister.

The Hon. V.A. Chapman: Oh, are you?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, but thank you very much for interjecting that bit of politics into this important debate. Anyway, never mind, why say something nice? Gladys Berejiklian has shown the courage of her convictions and her government to support a motion by a Liberal MP, which we have copied word for word. We have done so for a particular reason. I do not want this to be political. I want us to speak with one voice. I want this parliament to speak out together, not as Labor MPs, not as Independents, not as Liberal MPs, but as South Australians, with one voice, to say that our citizens in their homelands are feeling terrorised and victimised and are subject to cruel war crimes. We should call them out. That is why we should support this motion unanimously.

At the end of World War II as concentration camp after concentration camp was liberated, the Jewish people finally found a home and they defended that home by any means necessary. We have passed motions in this parliament about the self-determination of Israel. I also have sympathy for the Palestinian minorities—a great deal of sympathy for them—however, people who have been subjected to genocide have a right to self-determination, and we should recognise that right in the same way we recognise it for Israel.

I believe this parliament should stand up and do the right thing. I am encouraged by the support of my colleague the Hon. Irene Pnevmatikos, and of the shadow minister for multicultural and ethnic affairs, the member for Badcoe. It is in my opinion non-controversial for a liberal democracy to call out atrocities. There is nothing in this motion that is controversial. It speaks the truth. We all know it. The UN knows it, our allies know it, Australia knows it, and we need to speak out.

There is currently a ceasefire. That ceasefire was, of course, implemented through negotiation through the Russian Federation. The United States was not involved in that ceasefire. The US administration sat that one out. There is a new administration in the United States, and I understand that President Biden has a very different view about what should have occurred in this conflict.

I hope that the Republic of Armenia will see what we are saying here today: that we have not forgotten them, that we hear them, that we hear their screams of injustice, that we hear their cries for justice, that we hear what they have to say and that we support them.

I was privileged to be given this Armenian flag as a gift today. I will fly this at my office. I will fly it proudly in support of a minority who want to live in peace, who want to live in the lands of their fathers and mothers, who want to live harmoniously with their neighbours, do not seek empire, do not seek to expand, are not seeking military glory, and who just want to live and express their ethnicity, their faith and their culture and pass it on to their children.

They want what we all want: a future for our children, freedom, liberty, democracy and justice. How can we deny them that? Are any of us truly free if they are not? What does it mean for us to have these freedoms and enjoy them if these people are living in fear and terror? I urge my colleagues in this parliament to put partisanship aside and support the republic and people of Armenia.

Dr HARVEY (Newland) (11:48): I move:

That the debate be adjourned.

The house divided on the motion:

Ayes 23

Noes 23

Majority 0

AYES
Basham, D.K.B. Chapman, V.A. Cowdrey, M.J.
Cregan, D. Ellis, F.J. Gardner, J.A.W.
Harvey, R.M. (teller) Knoll, S.K. Luethen, P.
Marshall, S.S. McBride, N. Murray, S.
Patterson, S.J.R. Pederick, A.S. Pisoni, D.G.
Power, C. Sanderson, R. Speirs, D.J.
Tarzia, V.A. Treloar, P.A. van Holst Pellekaan, D.C.
Whetstone, T.J. Wingard, C.L.
NOES
Bedford, F.E. Bell, T.S. Bettison, Z.L.
Bignell, L.W.K. Boyer, B.I. Brock, G.G.
Brown, M.E. Close, S.E. Cook, N.F.
Duluk, S. Gee, J.P. Hildyard, K.A.
Hughes, E.J. Koutsantonis, A. (teller) Malinauskas, P.
Michaels, A. Mullighan, S.C. Odenwalder, L.K.
Piccolo, A. Picton, C.J. Stinson, J.M.
Szakacs, J.K. Wortley, D.

The SPEAKER: There being 23 ayes and 23 noes, the Speaker has the casting vote and, in accordance with standing order 180, I cast my vote with the noes.

Motion thus negatived.

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (11:54): I rise as shadow minister for multicultural affairs to support this important motion moved by my colleague and good friend the member for West Torrens. I thank him for his longstanding concern for the people of Armenia and for standing up for human rights wherever they may be violated. The freedom for all people to live in peace and safety is something to which every democratic jurisdiction should aspire, not just for its own people but for all people. All those who value human life should promote and protect the freedom of fellow humans across every nation.

We are fortunate in Australia to live in relative safety and security in our daily lives, not fearing armed conflict or genocide, but we should utilise that good fortune to advocate for the rights of others and, for that reason, I commend the motion and my colleagues for bringing it in this house and in the other place led by the Hon. Irene Pnevmatikos.

Artsakh is a de facto independent state, populated overwhelmingly by ethnic Armenians. It enjoys a close relationship with Armenia, sharing culture, currency and a long intertwined social and political history extending back many centuries, even millennia. Sadly, it sits in a region that for more than 100 years has been frequently marred by war, genocide and unspeakable human suffering. Indeed, as I researched for this speech, I was quite shocked at some of the material revealing some of the things that have happened in that region of the world.

On 27 September last year, aggressive military action began against the Republic of Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia. Estimates suggest that the conflict has so far led to the deaths of an estimated 3,000 ethnic Armenians and the displacement of over 150,000 ethnic Armenians from Artsakh. They are not numbers. They are real people—men, women and children.

Among other things, this motion calls for the peaceful resettlement of Armenian refugees without further reprisals, something all members in this place must surely agree is a desirable outcome. The motion advocates for an enduring peaceful settlement of the conflict on the basis of self-determination. A provisional peace agreement was established on 10 November, but the situation remains precarious and lives remain at risk. It is desirable to see peaceful intentions made manifest in practical outcomes to secure stable and lasting peace for Artsakh and its people.

The South Australian parliament would not be alone in our support of Artsakh and in our condemnation of the current aggression against Artsakh and its people. On 22 October last year, the New South Wales House of Assembly passed a similar motion to this one with near unanimous support—61 in favour and just two opposed. In 2012, the New South Wales Legislative Council recognised the Armenian republic's right to self-determination. That was just three years after this state parliament formally recognised the early 20th century genocide of 1.5 million Armenians, Pontian-Greeks and Assyrians by the imperial government of the Ottoman Empire.

The architect and driving force of that motion was the then member for Croydon and multicultural affairs minister, Michael Atkinson, a true scholar of world politics and history and a strong advocate for the human rights of people in lands far away from ours. Thanks must go to him for that motion in 2009 which led the way for many other Australian jurisdictions and jurisdictions overseas to follow. South Australia was the first jurisdiction to move such a motion and second only in the world to Sweden. I note that the then member for Croydon's leadership led to his receiving an invitation to Greece to speak in the square to over 20,000 people and I am so pleased that he can join us today.

The motion at that time both condemned the atrocities and acknowledged the significant humanitarian effort by South Australians who aided the victims and survivors of the genocide over a century ago. The ongoing unrest and instability across the region, populated by ethnic Armenians, have led to a widespread diaspora of which Australia has been the beneficiary. We are lucky to have a proud population of Armenian people in our state and across the nation.

Some of us may not realise the high achievement of many Armenian Australians. A musician very familiar to us here in Adelaide, and a friend of mine, Slava Grigoryan, hails from Armenia. He is the brains behind the Adelaide Guitar Festival and he is also one of its performing highlights, not to mention an ARIA award winner. I cannot wait to hear his beautiful guitar again soon. Armenia is well represented in elite boxing and weightlifting. Champion weightlifter Yurik Sarkisyan has taken out many world titles as well as commonwealth and Olympic honours.

In politics, as my colleague mentioned, the Premier of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, leads the way. While, in my own field of journalism, former Network Ten newsreader, George Donikian, despite not being on air for more than a decade, remains an icon of the television news industry. His father was a Greek-Armenian, immigrating to Australia in 1949.

Regardless of the circumstances in which they and their families, and countless others in the 50,000-strong Armenian-Australian community, came to live here, they are Australians now; Australians who retain the strength of their proud cultural identity as Armenians, and we are richer as a nation for that.

It is disingenuous to embrace our Armenian-Australian countrymen and women here in this nation and in this state without also extending our care to the Armenians who remain within their indigenous region. The ethnic Armenians in Artsakh are equally deserving of our recognition under the same principles of humanity that all of us in this place hold dear.

As I mentioned in November, a provisional peace agreement was established between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. The motion before us today recognises that agreement as the first step in the ongoing diplomatic and humanitarian work that is necessary to ensure that hostilities cease, that refugees are able to return to their homes or to be suitably and peacefully resettled and that sites of historical, religious and cultural significance are preserved.

I thank our friends at the Armenian Cultural Association of South Australia, its leadership and its members for their strong advocacy on this absolutely heart-wrenching matter. I also extend my prayers to your families and friends in your birth country who have endured such horrors. It was a pleasure to meet with you all earlier and I especially thank Emil Davtyan and Elena Gasparyan and all other members and friends of the association for lobbying so hard for this motion to come before our parliament today.

As the shadow minister for multicultural affairs, I am grateful for your tenacity as champions for your people and for your passion for highlighting an issue that is so dear to all of your hearts and should be more widely known by Australians.

Finally, I would like to read you a quote that was actually provided to me specifically for this speech by a good friend of mine of Greek heritage. I would like to pause for a moment to recognise the close relationship between the Greek and Armenian communities. There are very many people in South Australia, and in my own electorate of Badcoe, of Greek descent, and I know from speaking with them that there is an enduring friendship between the people of these two nations. The quote is from the often quoted but always inspiring Nelson Mandela, who said:

No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

I commend this motion to the house and I commend the honourable leader of opposition business for moving this motion. I hope it will receive the support of everyone in this house and in the other place. I wish the Armenian community all the best in their ongoing fight for self-determination.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning and Local Government) (12:02): I wish to speak briefly in relation to this motion, and I note that the member for West Torrens has presented this matter. Certainly in the time I have been here, this parliament has received similar motions where there is a call for some aspect of condemnation to protect a minority group, and in this case an ethnic minority group.

I note that the attention of the house has been drawn to the presence of the former member for Croydon. It is not often that we agreed on a lot of things in the parliament, but one I can recall is when debates were presented on the atrocities that occurred in Afghanistan. This was certainly an area that he spoke passionately on, and I have spoken on the disputes in that regard. What has been described as the invasion of Cypress in the 1970s and issues such as that have been outlined in this parliament, with various motions presented to express our distress and/or condemnation of conduct. When it comes to action against and attempts to eradicate, to have a holocaust against those who are in a minority group, it is even more offensive and it is even more distressing.

I note that the Armenian Cultural Association have brought this request through to the member for West Torrens for us to join with that. It adds a number of other aspects, including what we might ask federal governments to do—it does not mention the federal parliament or federal opposition and the like. Nevertheless, there are two things we do when we receive these motions, as sympathetic as they may present on the face of it: one is to consult with the community which has asked for it, and the other is to deal with any other parties that may have an interest in this matter. In this case, where there is a request to deal with federal policymakers at the government level, of course we deal with them, and it is important that we do that.

I just wish to place on the record on this important issue that a request has come to me in the last 24 hours to meet with senior members of the Armenian community to be able to identify a position for the government and any other government members. I am not sure whether that opportunity has been given to crossbenchers, but it has come to me. I have responded to it and arranged to meet with them early next week.

It is concerning that the process is one where we are not given an opportunity to be able to speak to the members in the community who want us to be alert to the issues on this matter. They are very serious matters, they are extremely disturbing matters, and on the face of the submission that has been presented in this motion one could not help but be very sympathetic to it. I indicate to the house that the mover of the motion seems, I think against any usual precedent, to insist that we vote on this matter today. I will not oppose this—I do not think others would want to oppose the motion—but I place on the record how disappointed I am that we have not been given an opportunity to meet with the community.

I am very happy to meet with them next week anyway, whatever the outcome of today, but I just place on the record how disappointed I am that that process has not been followed when historically on these matters we have ensured—and we certainly did when we were in opposition—that that opportunity was afforded when a submission such as this was presented through a motion such as this. Disappointed as I am, I simply place that on the record and look forward to meeting with the Armenian community next week.

Ms MICHAELS (Enfield) (12:07): I rise today to speak wholeheartedly in support of the motion moved by the member for West Torrens. I thank him for raising these serious abuses of human rights in this place. I want to say how proud I am that the Father of the House spoke so passionately about this issue in this place just before. I felt very privileged to have heard that speech.

The Turkish government's support of Azerbaijan's war against the Republic of Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia is unconscionable in every way. The actions of the Turkish government have had a profound effect on so many millions of people throughout history, including the lives of my family and me. As you may be aware, Mr Speaker, I am here as a direct result of Turkish aggression that resulted in the displacement of 150,000 Greek Cypriots, including my family. As the member for West Torrens talked about, they faced murder, rape, displacement—horrific aggression.

Due to the Turkish invasion in Cyprus, I was born in London a few months after my family fled their beautiful village of Eptakomi. Nearly 50 years later, there are still 1,500 Greek Cypriots missing, having been imprisoned by the Turkish government. My homeland still remains divided. In its occupation of Cyprus, the Turkish military sought to ethnically cleanse the occupied territory through the violent expulsion of Greek Cypriots from their homes and preventing their return, and they settled about 120,000 mainland Turkish people into the occupied territory.

The Republic of Turkey has a long history of brutal ethnic cleansing against civilian populations. In 1915, the Turkish Ottoman Empire committed atrocities against the Greek Pontians, Armenians and Assyrians, killing more than 1.5 million people in a deliberate act of genocide.

Today, the Turkish military clearly continues to target Armenians. With the support of Turkey, Azerbaijan has committed widespread atrocities against Armenians, targeting civilian areas through the use of weaponised drones and cluster munitions. The capital of Artsakh has been destroyed, along with smaller towns and villages. Some of the oldest Christian monasteries and cathedrals of global cultural significance have been targeted, vandalised and, in some cases, destroyed. While a peace agreement was recently signed, global leaders need to take steps to protect against this sort of ethnic cleansing and to enable these refugees to quickly return to their homes.

I join with the member for West Torrens in condemning the actions of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Turkey in their aggression towards the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh. I call on the federal government to condemn these attacks and to advocate for the safety and security of Armenians through the provision of international support to ensure stability in the region. As the member for West Torrens said, 'Enough is enough,' and I wholeheartedly agree with that. I commend this motion to the house.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (12:10): I think that now it is appropriate to offer some thanks. First of all, sir, my thanks to you. I do not wish to reflect on a vote of the house, but I wish to thank you, sir, for upholding the traditions of this parliament. You have conducted yourself today as a good and independent Speaker. You have put the institution first and for that I wish to thank you. I point out that the Speaker is a member of the Liberal Party and has today exercised himself with great distinction. He is a credit to his party today and for that I thank him.

I thank the crossbench: the member for Florey, the member for Waite, the member for Mount Gambier and the member for—

Ms Bedford: Frome.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —Frome for their support in continuing this important debate. I also thank the members of the Labor caucus for their support.

I also want to thank the Armenian Cultural Association, especially Emil and Elena: I only recently met Emil; I have known Elena for a while. These young people will keep their culture and their heritage alive and their community should be very proud of them. It is a credit to the community that they are raising young leaders like this to keep the flame burning so we will always remember what has occurred in the past so it does not occur again in the future, and to teach our children and to remind them every day of what has happened in the past because we cannot lose our language, we cannot lose our history and we cannot lose our faith. We must keep those bedrocks of who we are intact.

Patrick Conlon, who used to be a member of parliament here, would often say to me, 'You can love your mother and your wife,' which is an interesting concept for migrants. He loved Ireland, but he also loved Australia. I love my heritage, but I am an Australian first. That does not mean that I have forgotten my Hellenic culture, my Hellenic history and my faith. The same is to be said for Armenians.

I thank the government for allowing debate on this motion and for allowing its passage in silence—that takes leadership. On behalf of the parliamentary Labor Party and on behalf of all of my colleagues, to the Armenian community of South Australia I say that we are standing with you. This parliament will speak in support of Armenia and Artsakh for those who have lost their lives to ensure that it never occurs again. I commend this motion to the house.

Motion carried.

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