BY HAIG KAYSERIAN

Last week, the Sydney Armenian community had the pleasure of an audience with The Rt. Hon. Professor Baroness Caroline Cox of Queensbury; the former Deputy Speaker of the British House of Lords addressing community guests and students at Galstaun College.

The Baroness has visited Nagorno Karabakh over 70 times since the region's Armenians began to battle for their right to self-determination against an oppressive Azerbaijan in the 1990s. She has delivered aid to the Armenians of the region, shared prayers with many and left a lasting legacy with infrastructure designed to help all those in need.

Arguably, the Baroness' most important work has been in documenting all her visits with thousands of photos, articles and books. Caroline Cox has used her eyewitness accounts, and considerable profile in Great Britain and around the world, to become the leading public voice defending the rights to self-determination of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh.

But as Caroline Cox told me when I met her last Wednesday, a single voice is good, but not nearly enough.

The importance of public figures defending Nagorno Karabakh on any political stage cannot be underestimated.

The Baroness congratulated the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) for our achievement in pressing the Nagorno Karabakh case to State and Federal politicians to the extent that two NSW Members of Parliament - Jonathan O'Dea MP and Victor Dominello MP - recently spoke on the topic in Macquarie Street.

As O'Dea was present at her Galstaun College address, Baroness Cox personally thanked him for making representations. She also joined ANC Australia in encouraging another attendee, the Hon. Paul Fletcher - a Federal Member for Parliament - to raise the issue in Canberra.

Caroline Cox's 30-minute address last Wednesday was more powerful than any 3-day conference that could be organised on this topic, because it was delivered so eloquently by a public figure who had seen the situation first-hand.

The Armenian National Committees in Australia, the United States, Europe, the Middle East and around the world, have been working on multiplying the Caroline Coxes on the side of the righteous in the Nagorno Karabakh debate.

O'Dea and Dominello were one and two in Australia to deliver their allegiance to the case in addresses to Parliament.

It is our aim that they can help us convince many more, at all levels of government in Australia, to help advance our cause.

In Baroness Caroline Cox, they have a sterling example.