The Chair of Australia Azerbaijan Friendship Group, Luke Simpkins MP has drawn The Australian Parliament’s attention to the illegal occupation of Nagorno Karabagh and asked Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to warn Armenia for their deplorable treatment of Azerbaijan citizens.
Mr Simpkins said : ” In 1992 and 1993, Armenia illegally seized sovereign territory of Azerbaijan. This includes the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. As a result of the attack and the seizure of that territory by Armenia, 350,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis were pushed from Armenia into Azerbaijan, and over 750,000 Azerbaijanis were forced out of their homes and became internally displaced persons in other parts of Azerbaijan. Therefore, over one million Azerbaijanis have been kept from their land, their property and the graves of their ancestors for over 20 years.”
The occupation of Nagorno Karabagh is not recognised by UN or any other sovereign nation in the world including Australia, but NSW Parliament has joined a group of Russian satelite states like South Ossetia and Abkhazia in 2012 in recognising Nagorna Karabagh. The motion was brought to the NSW parliament by the disgraced politician Marie Ficarra MLC and the far-right politician Reverend Fred Nile MLC. It was made clear by the Australian government that state parliaments have no say in Australian Foreign Policy.
You can read Mr Simpkins’ full speech here.
