Genocide Emergency Alert:
Artsakh Surrenders to Azerbaijan's Aggression
On Tuesday, September 19, 2023, Azerbaijan began the bombardment of Stepanakert the capital of Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). 27 people were killed; 138 people injured.
Within two days, Artsakh surrendered to Azerbaijan. Artsakh authorities said they had no alternative.
Nagorno-Karabagh is on its knees after a nine-month blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting it to Armenia. Before the blockade, 90% of Artsakh’s food was imported from Armenia.
In February 2023, the International Court of Justice ordered Azerbaijan to open the Lachin Corridor. Instead, Azerbaijan installed a security checkpoint, sealing off the “Road of Life."
Artsakh has run out of flour to make bread. Hospitals are out of medicines. Stores have no baby formula. Artsakh's dialysis units have shut down. One in three deaths is due to malnutrition.
Former prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, says Azerbaijan is using starvation as a strategy to commit a silent genocide. Acts of genocide include not just mass killing. They include "deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part." (Genocide Convention Article 2(c))
Azerbaijani President Aliyev’s dictatorial regime's objective is to drive all Armenians out of Artsakh through war and genocide. Aliyev wants full integration of Artsakh into Azerbaijan.
Armenians claim integration will lead to genocide, repeating past Baku and Sumgait pogroms.
Aliyev's genocidal intent is often expressed in his dehumanization of Armenians.
The silent genocide has become overt. Azerbaijan has mobilized its military along the borders of Artsakh and Armenia since early September, 2023. All-out war would mean another Armenian Genocide. With no reliable allies, Armenian defeat was certain. To save lives, surrender was the only option.
How many more Armenian lives, cultural heritage sites, and ancestral lands will be lost? Will the US and Europe again be bystanders to genocide?
Genocide Watch considers Azerbaijan to be at Stage 4: Dehumanization, Stage 5: Organization, Stage 7: Preparation, Stage 8: Persecution, and Stage 9: Extermination.
Genocide Watch recommends that the US, EU, Russia and the UN should:
● Enforce the ceasefire agreement with Azerbaijan. If Azerbaijan breaks it, persuade Georgia to shut down the oil and gas pipelines that pass through it.
● Airlift massive emergency humanitarian aid directly into Artsakh.
● Enforce, not waive, Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act and stop all US aid to Azerbaijan.
● Reject forced integration of Artsakh into Azerbaijan because it will lead to deportation and genocide.
● UNESCO should expand its list of cultural heritage sites in Artsakh and appoint a commission of inquiry to investigate damage to Armenian heritage sites in Azerbaijan.