03/15/2021 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) – International Christian Concern (ICC) will be hosting a virtual event on Wednesday, March 17th at 10am EST entitled, Anatomy of Genocide: Karabakh’s Forty-Four Day War. The event will be hosted with the Armenian Assembly of America, covering the aggressions of Azerbaijan and Turkey last Fall in Nagorno-Karabakh (Armenian: Artsakh) against Armenia. Robert Avetisyan, the Permanent Representative of Artsakh to the United States, will deliver remarks, joined by representatives from ICC and the Armenian Assembly.
Last September, Azerbaijani forces attacked Nagorno-Karabakh without warning with the support and endorsement of Turkey. What followed was forty-four days of bloodshed, which included various war crimes committed by Azerbaijani forces and Turkish-paid Syrian mercenaries, concluding with a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement. The conflict resulted in Armenia ceding control of Artsakh to Azerbaijan, despite the majority Armenian population of the region.
However, this conflict was about more than mere territorial control of Artsakh; the Turkish and Azerbaijani messaging of the brief war paint a much broader picture. Both states continually used symbolic narratives that promoted their shared Pan-Turkic identity, with an intention to eliminate the Armenian identity completely from Artsakh. The degrading treatment of Armenian Christians illustrates this desire, remnant of the treatment of Armenians during the genocide of the early 20th century. For this reason, Turkish and Azerbaijani ambition still threatens the mere existence of Armenians on account of their ethnicity and religion.
ICC recently published an in-depth report outlining these details and the broader issues of the conflict, entitled, The Anatomy of Genocide: Karabakh’s Forty-Four Day War.
This event is meant to further delve into the conflict itself, while also highlighting the problems that face Armenians moving forward and providing recommendations for U.S. policymakers on how to address these issues. The event will be held on Zoom and recorded for viewers who are unable to attend live.