ANC-AU, “community lobbying” and foreign interference
By: Azerbaijani Community Of Australia
Tags: Azerbaijan, Karabakh, Armenia, Foreign Policy

This post is intended to inform Australians on the acts of ANCA (the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU)) that contradict the Australian principles of multiculturalism and violate the state legislation. Just recently ANCA advertised Internship Program 2020, Hagop Kortian Scholarship.

According to ANCA, the Hagop Kortian Scholarship is part of the broader ANC-AU Internship Program, designed to provide internship opportunities for young Armenian-Australians at the office of the peak public affairs body of the Armenian-Australian community, as well as in the offices of Members of Parliament, Senators, government departments, think-tanks and media centres in Canberra and within state capitals across the country.

ANC-Au invites applicants interested in the ANC-AU Internship Program’s 2020 Hagop Kortian Scholarship, which will assist with costs of applicants as they find unpaid and/or paid positions in relevant offices.

One of the eligibility criteria includes a proof of dedication to so called Hai Tat or “the Armenian cause” , which (along with other aims and objectives) includes territorial claims to three out of five neighbouring countries, namely Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia (a non-Turkic Christian country). In fact, the scholarship promotes infiltration of propagators of the Armenian Cause into the Australian Political institutions. We want to draw your attention to one of the requirements:

Candidates for the ANC-AU Internship Program’s Hagop Kortian Scholarship should email their applications to … including:

a personal statement, no longer than 1000 words, that answers the following question: What do you hope to learn during your proposed internship with a Federal politician, and how will you use your acquired skills and ideas to further Hai Tad (the Armenian Cause) in your own community or campus?

So, what is ANCA-AU? Here are a few facts about the organisation.

Armenian National Committee is a pan-Armenian global organisation and an offshoot of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) headquartered in Yerevan (capital of Armenia).

The ARF website (in Armenian version) cites ANC-AU as one of their overseas organisations.

The ARF is a marxist ultra-nationalist group founded in 1890.

ANC-AU is led by the former chairman of the ARF, both organisations share the same address in Sydney.

ANC-AU representatives admitted this direct link to Yerevan in an interview with Wolvaardt Francois Adriaan for his PhD thesis.

ARF was the founder of JCAG — Justice Commandos of Armenian Genocide — and recrutied terrorists from its youth organisations, according to JCAG.

A JCAG cell in Australia between 1980 and 1986 carried out two deadly attacks and at least two other plots were thwarted by ASIO

JCAG killed Turkish diplomats Engin Sever and Sarik Ariyak on 17 December 1980, in Sydney Dover Heights. Mr Ariyak was murdered before the very eyes of his then 8-year old daughter Cagla.

A joint strike force (Esslemont) led by NSW Police Counter Terrorism officers, including officers from ASIO, AFP and NSW Crime Commision have been reinvestigating this case for over a year now.

The extremist ANCA group supports this idea of expansionism, as one of the agendas outlined on their website is the “Awareness of the status of Armenians in Javakh”. Javakheti (“Javakh” in Armenian) is part of Georgia with pre-dominantly Armenian population.

Source: Haig Kayserian’s Linkedin account

We assume, that we are not the only ones who unwillingly associate Hai Tat (the Armenian Cause) with Cosa Nostra (Our Cause). In fact, ANCA is functioning like a mafia or a big corporation. They have money, hierarchy, employees and managers, extras on a payroll, connections, they are aggressively active. For years they have been infiltrating Australian political and economic establishment, gaining more influence, and promoting Armenian agenda within it. They have been able to mobilize a number of Australian politicians to support the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijan (condemned by four UN resolutions) and ethnic cleansing of 900,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis (reported by Human rights watch).

Source: Human Rights Watch / Helsinki

As it seems ANCA-AU is also one of the actors shaping the collective opinion of Australians regarding Armenian issues. The 44 days of the Armenia-Azerbaijan military conflict demonstrated that despite the facts that the battleground was the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan, and Armenia targeted civil infrastructure and used cluster bombs which resulted in more than 110 civil deaths (including 11 children), the media still demonstrated bias. It was the unfounded Armenian narrative of Armenia’s historical rights over the territory that ordinary Australians were mostly exposed to. It is crucial to note the tragic stories of Karabakh’s former Azerbaijani inhabitants, four UN resolutions, Human rights watch reports on the first Karabakh war to show both sides of the story.

The question is to what extent do these activities of ANCA align with Australia’s national interests? Obviously, the pro-Armenian activities contradict Australia’s official stance in the question of Karabakh. “Australia supports the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and does not recognise Nagorno-Karabakh (also known as the “Republic of Artsakh”) as an independent state”, says the page of The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Source: DFAT

Australia legislated the Foreign Interference Transparency Act to counter foreign countries and actors, like ANCA-AU, meddling with its democracy. It has rightfully done so as the country’s capital and state parliaments are full of lobbyists trying to change the government’s views and stand on issues ranging from foreign-owned coal mine projects to recognition of illegitimate territorial claims.

Haig Kayserian, Chairman of ANC-AU commenting on the United Nations and asking to “take back” occupied territories which were under the Armenian occupation for almost 30 years.

According to the Ph.D. thesis of researcher Wolvaardt Francois Adriaan, the ANC-AU serves as the public affairs organization of the ARF (Armenian Revolutionary Federation, also known as Dashnaktsyutyun) outside Armenia. The ANC-AU representatives have told Adriaan that “ANC-Australia directly reports to the office in Armenia.”

Most Australians have no idea of this overwhelming influence and of their short-sighted representatives championing for causes even potentially irrelevant to their urgent needs. Those declarations, motions, support rallies are only serving radical diaspora groups and their Yerevan-based patrons who have nothing but blood on their hands.

Azerbaijanis escape the war in Nagorno-Karabakh region and adjacent districts in 1991–94. Over 900,000 people have been displaced by Armenia from their historical homeland.

The Azerbaijani community of Australia can’t help feeling marginalized and insecure in the face of this massive Armenian Nationalistic infiltration. We never wanted to bring that remote regional conflict to Australia. We never wanted to contaminate our new lives with decades old tragic history of our home country. Although we feel a silent support of the Australian Turkish/Turkic community, we do not want to be as enforcing as the Armenian diaspora, by having our community members on a payroll, undermining the very principles of a community spirit, goodwill and the Australian democratic values; we do not want to spend money on undermining the very principles of multiculturalism and democracy that are primordial Australian values. We want to live our normal lives in our new home knowing that no Australian politician influenced by the Armenian Nationalistic narrative will demonise us, our ethnicity, and our country of origin. We hope that our children’s lives, employment opportunities, social interactions will not be threatened by a toxic “un-Australian” environment created by those nationalistic waves.

Hugh McDermott, NSW State MP standing on a tank in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. As a result of Armenian occupation in 90s more than 900,000 Azeris were expelled from their homelands

P.S. Please make yourself acquainted with the way the Armenian diaspora of the US influence American politicians. The ANCA carefully tracks Members of Congress on a range of issues of concern to Armenians. They compile the information and present the profile of each Member in an easy-to-read Report Card format. Congressional grades and endorsements for the 116th Congress were announced in October, 2020. Armenians in the US choose their state on the map or in the “Select State” dropbox to view the report cards of all House Members and congress Members