Azerbaijan's illegal checkpoint at Lachin Corridor

A group of prominent civic organizations in Artsakh equated the international community’s insistence that Artsakh be part of Azerbaijan and be under Baku’s rule to suggesting that Jews live under Adolf Hitler’s regime.

In an open letter to the international community, publicized Monday by Artsakh’s Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan, the civic organizations asked the international actors interested in a peace whether they would make the same proposal, equating Azerbaijan to a Nazi state.

“When there are calls from various international platforms for a peaceful resolution to the conflict by including Artsakh in Azerbaijan, we suggest that they recall the history of the Second World War and trying to imagine: would it be possible to ask Jews to live under Hitler’s Nazi government?” the open letter emphasized.

“Modern-day Azerbaijan is also a Nazi state in relation to the Armenians, and it is not difficult to prove. One only has to objectively look at the one-sided Azerbaijan propaganda being consumed [by its population],” added the statement.

The groups delineate the history of Azerbaijan’s blockade of Artsakh beginning on December 12, 2022 and the further tightening of that blockade beginning with the installation of an illegal checkpoint and later by completely closing the Lachin Corridor to all traffic last month.

“These actions by Azerbaijan should not be considered as separate acts of aggression, but as a part of its consistent and systematic policy of ethnic cleansing against Artsakh and its indigenous Armenian population,” said the civic organization, pointing out that on June 28, Azerbaijani forces against attacked Artsakh positions, killing four Artsakh soldiers.

The statement also highlights the various rulings and resolutions adopted during the past six months, specifically those by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the United Nations, and especially the International Court of Justice, which ordered Azerbaijan to ensure the “unimpeded movement” along the Lachin Corridor. The ICJ reaffirmed this ruling last week.

“As if mocking the authority of thee organizations, Azerbaijan stubbornly continues to conduct the policy of genocide against the people of Artsakh, demonstrating its criminal will and thereby opposing the civilized world. Furthermore, the President of Azerbaijan overtly allows himself to threaten representatives of the international community who do not share his approach to resolving the Artsakh issue, while believing that international law is entirely on the side of Azerbaijan,” the statement emphasized.

“Official Baku has been rejecting the demand to provide guarantees for the security of the people of Artsakh and is constantly insisting that this is a domestic concern of Azerbaijan, which it intends to solve at its discretion, against the backdrop of blatant Armenophobia, which has become part of the state policy of the authoritarian regime of Azerbaijan and completely permeates the Azerbaijani society. As there is plenty of evidence, it is not difficult to imagine what this ‘solution’ might be if the people of Artsakh suddenly find themselves under the rule of Baku,” explained the statement.

“We would like to emphasize that the only reliable guarantee of our rights and security is the recognition of the independence of the Republic of Artsakh, which is based on the rights of the people to self-determination, enshrined in international law, and the free will of the people of Artsakh,” the civic organizations said.

“Artsakh is not a ‘territory’ inherited through force, but rather it is our Homeland, where we have a complete and inalienable right to live safely,” the civic groups emphasized.