Tuesday, 9 December 2025

 Eden FOSTER (Mulgrave) (12:22): The electorate of Mulgrave is home to the highest concentration of Armenian Australians in Victoria, and recently I joined them to celebrate 50 years of the Armenian National Committee of Australia. This year’s keynote guest was Siranush Sahakyan, a human rights lawyer from Armenia with 15 years of experience, currently leading over 600 cases against Azerbaijan at the European Court of Human Rights. She spoke about how she currently represents many Armenian hostages who remain imprisoned by Azerbaijan since the 2020 Artsakh war. It had been extensively reported by groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that Armenian hostages face extreme levels of torture. Such fears were heightened after the International Committee of the Red Cross, a non-partisan body which monitors the safety of hostages, was expelled from Azerbaijan. Here in Australia many have called for the immediate release of the 23 Armenian hostages who remain in captivity. Former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans has called for their release, as well as the Labor governments in New South Wales and South Australia. I join my Labor colleagues across the country in echoing such sentiments and urge Azerbaijan to immediately release all Armenian hostages. I congratulate the ANCA and their community for 50 years of advocacy here in Australia, and I thank them for continuing to raise issues of concern to Armenian Australians.