Now, more recently, of course, this Senedd has ensured that Wales is a nation of sanctuary, which is all about welcoming those from all across the world who have been displaced by war and conflict and those seeking a safe place to live. And, heaven knows, in light of some of the narrative coming from the Westminster Government at the moment, we really need to reflect on our responsibility to provide that sanctuary. Now that we have our own Senedd—albeit with little powers or competence in an international context—we have a duty to use this platform and to raise our collective voice to call out injustices wherever we see them. Despite the fact that many of the powers to really effect change are reserved to Westminster, we have a moral duty to use our status as a national Parliament, as a national Government, to speak up and to speak out to condemn human rights abuses, to condemn war and aggression and to reach out and embrace those who are in their hour of need. We're doing so with Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine. We've done so in assistance to the people fleeing persecution from the Taliban in Afghanistan. We've done so in condemnation of the ongoing human rights abuses faced by the women of Iran. Not only are we a nation of sanctuary, we are a nation of solidarity. And that’s why, today, in the Senedd, we must also speak out and condemn the ongoing and largely overlooked atrocities perpetrated against the Armenian people in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia is a comparatively small country, with a population similar to that of Wales. And since their independence, first in 1918 and then again in 1991, they have faced war and genocide by their neighbours. Between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians were systematically murdered by the Young Turks in what many nations still fail to correctly describe as genocide. And, prior to that, another genocide occurred under the Ottoman Empire, back in 1895, where 300,000 Armenians were murdered. Even the UK Government, over a century after those horrors were perpetrated against the Armenian people, is still to have the courage to call it out for what it was—genocide. Other nations that we often hold as beacons of freedom, liberty and human rights have only recently done so. Germany only recognised the Armenian genocide in 2016, and the USA did the same in 2019. And it’s high time that the UK Government followed suit.