Australia has rightfully taken its place alongside many of her closest allies, calling for unimpeded movement along the Lachin corridor, in line with the top judicial organ of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The peak public affairs body of the Armenian-Australian community has received correspondence from the coalition of organisations and grassroots activists who wrote to the Foreign Affairs Minister, articulating what represents \u201ca welcome shift\u201d in the public narrative from the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (DFAT), which had until now preferred statements urging \u201cboth sides to de-escalate tensions and to ensure freedom and security along the corridor\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
DFAT\u2019s letters now state: \u201cWe support the provisional measures order issued by the International Court of Justice on 22 February 2023, which was reaffirmed by the Court on 6 July 2023. The Court ordered Azerbaijan to \u201ctake all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Australia now joins the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Parliament and many other nations, and prominent non-governmental organisations in supporting the International Court of Justice\u2019s provisional measures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ANC-AU welcomes the statement from DFAT on behalf of Senator Wong, and now expects the Foreign Minister and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to publicly echo this in all possible settings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor the second time now, an Australian Government has recognised Azerbaijan\u2019s belligerent actions, first in November 2022 acknowledging Azerbaijan as the responsible party for a specific series of crimes against Armenian prisoners of war and the desecration of Armenian cultural and religious sites, and now as the instigator of an illegal blockade in violation of international law,\u201d said ANC-AU Executive Director, Michael Kolokossian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe look forward to this positive shift in Australia\u2019s position being echoed in all bilateral and multilateral international channels by both Prime Minister Albanese and Foreign Affairs Minister Wong until the genocidal blockade is lifted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over 2,000 Armenian-Australians signed an Australian Parliamentary petition over the past month, calling for the Federal Government’s support to end Artsakh’s blockade, which was presented to the House of Representatives who passed it on to Foreign Minister Wong before the release of the above letters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kolokossian added: \u201cThe Armenian National Committee of Australia extends its warm gratitude to all community members who passionately advocated in support of Artsakh, the Australian civil society organisations who wrote to the Foreign Minister, and state and federal parliamentarians who have signed the Statement of Support for the people of Artsakh calling on this important shift in Canberra\u2019s policy. Through our collective and united efforts, we have secured this victory.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australia has rightfully taken its place alongside many of her closest allies, calling for unimpeded movement along the Lachin corridor, in line with the top judicial organ of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU). The peak public affairs body of the Armenian-Australian community has received […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[131,133,397,480],"class_list":["post-21389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-anc-australia","tag-anc-international","tag-397","tag-480"],"yoast_head":"\n