Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am the chairman of the Australian-Azerbaijan Parliamentary Friendship Group and, as such, I will raise issues in the parliament regarding matters to do with Azerbaijan. In 1992 and 1993, Armenia illegally seized sovereign territory of Azerbaijan. This includes the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, but also a district called Kalbajar. 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 United Nations has recognised that the occupation was illegal and does not recognise the political entity that Armenia has tried to establish. A number of United Nations resolutions refer to the illegal occupation. The essential point is that neither does Australia recognise the so-called Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. Given history and our position on Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories, I would like to draw the parliament's attention to the treatment of three Azerbaijani civilians by Armenia. In July 2014, three Azerbaijani citizens, native to the now occupied areas, had been visiting their native lands when they were taken prisoner by Armenian forces. The three men were Dilgam Askerov from the occupied Kalbajar district, Shahbaz Guliyev from the occupied Terter district and Hasan Hasanov from the occupied Jebrail district of Azerbaijan. They were detected in the village of Shaplar in the Kalbajar district of Azerbaijan; that was the hometown of Dilgam Askerov. Hasan Hasanov was killed and the circumstances are not known. His body was not returned either to Azerbaijani or to his relatives, which makes it impossible to draw conclusions about how he died and whether he was tortured.

The ICRC has intervened and started talks with Armenia in order to seek the return of Hasanov's remains, but that has not been successful. I understand that the exact whereabouts of Dilgam Askerov and Shahbaz Guliyev and their health conditions are unknown. There are many inconsistencies in the different accounts of the Armenian sources. The convictions of Askerov and Guliyev for being a saboteur group and having murdered people is inconsistent with the history of these men; the accounts against them are not credible. I would ask that the foreign minister raise the matter with Armenia. Obviously the return of the occupied territory to Azerbaijan should occur, but I also believe that Armenia should return Hasanov's remains and release Askerov and Guliyev.