Wednesday, August 9, 2023
Top International Lawyer Calls Azerbaijani Blockade Of Nagorno-Karabakh Genocide
Former International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo (file photo)
The founding prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has described the
current blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan as a genocide.
In an expert opinion requested by Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leader in
late July, Luis Moreno Ocampo, an Argentine lawyer who served at the Hague court
in 2003-2012, stressed that “there is an ongoing Genocide against 120,000
Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
In the document published from New York on August 7 and titled “Genocide against
Armenians in 2023” the 71-year-old lawyer who successfully prosecuted for crimes
against humanity three heads of state, including the president of Sudan, Omar
al-Bashir, said that “the blockade of the Lachin Corridor by the Azerbaijani
security forces impeding access to any food, medical supplies, and other
essentials should be considered a Genocide under Article II, (c) of the Genocide
Convention: ‘Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated
to bring about its physical destruction.’”
“There are no crematories, and there are no machete attacks. Starvation is the
invisible Genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of
Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks. Starvation as a method to destroy
people was neglected by the entire international community when it was used
against Armenians in 1915, Jews and Poles in 1939, Russians in Leningrad (now
Saint Petersburg) in 1941, and Cambodians in 1975/1976. Starvation was also
neglected when used in Srebrenica in the winter of 1993/1994,” Ocampo wrote.
He reminded that analyzing the Srebrenica case, the International Court of
Justice ruled that “deprivation of food, medical care, shelter or clothing”
constitute Genocide within the meaning of Article II(c) of the Genocide
Convention.
“State parties of the Genocide Convention assumed the duty to prevent and punish
Genocide. The International Court of Justice ruled that state parties should
‘not wait until the perpetration of Genocide commences,’ and ‘The whole point of
the obligation is to prevent or attempt to prevent the occurrence of the act,’”
the lawyer noted.
In his expert opinion Ocampo wrote that “there is a reasonable basis to believe
that a Genocide is being committed against Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh
in 2023.”
He stressed that the International Court of Justice, at the request of Armenia,
has already analyzed the Lachin corridor’s blockade.
“The Court focused on State liability for alleged violations of the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination rather than individual criminal responsibility for the commission
of Genocide.
Though predicated on a different set of State obligations, the Court confirmed
the occurrence of the material elements of Genocide that are set out in Article
II, (c) of the Genocide Convention: “Deliberately inflicting on the group
conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.”
The Court’s preliminary findings considered “plausible” that the Lachin corridor
blockade produced “a real and imminent risk” to the “health and life” of an
ethnic group, “the Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
The intention, a subjective element required by the crime of Genocide, should be
deduced from the facts and statements from [Azerbaijani] President [Ilham]
Aliyev, who has supreme authority in Azerbaijan,” Ocampo wrote.
The Argentine lawyer went on to note that “President Aliyev, in a fair trial,
would have the opportunity to provide a different interpretation of the indicia.”
“In the meantime, there is reasonable basis to believe that President Aliyev has
Genocidal intentions: he has knowingly, willingly and voluntarily blockaded the
Lachin Corridor even after having been placed on notice regarding the
consequences of his actions by the ICJ’s provisional orders,” the founding
prosecutor of the International Criminal Court wrote in his conclusion.
Official Baku has not yet commented on the expert opinion provided by Ocampo at
the request of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leader Arayik Harutiunian.
Meanwhile, Harutiunian on August 8 issued an urgent appeal to the international
community, asking for immediate action to lift the blockade imposed by
Azerbaijan and prevent what he called “the genocide of the people of
Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Karabakh Leader Appeals To International Community Over Azerbaijani Blockade
Arayik Harutiunian, leader of Nagorno-Karabakh (file photo)
Nagorno-Karabakh leader Arayik Harutiunian has issued an urgent appeal to the
international community, asking for immediate action to lift a de facto blockade
imposed by Azerbaijan and prevent what he called “the genocide of the people of
Nagorno-Karabakh.”
“With this urgent address I am signaling that right now the people of the
Republic of Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh – ed.] are being subjected to genocide and
face a real threat of destruction and deprivation of their homeland,”
Harutiunian said in a video address published late on August 8.
He then presented what he described as a humanitarian crisis created by the
240-day blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, charging that “in a situation like this
manifestation of inaction or indifference is nothing but acquiescence in the
crime of genocide.”
“The international community must take effective personal and collective steps
in order not to allow Azerbaijan to fill the history of mankind with another
page of mass famine and genocide,” Harutiunian said.
The Karabakh leader said that Stepanakert calls on Armenia to “immediately
submit to the UN Security Council for discussion the humanitarian disaster that
has emerged as a result of Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor and the
illegal blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, which have grown into the crime of
genocide, with the aim of adopting a resolution that implies urgent and concrete
steps, as well as to turn to international partners for considering and imposing
sanctions against Azerbaijan.” Harutiunian also urged Yerevan to be careful in
its public statements and assessments of the situation.
The president of Nagorno-Karabakh called on the UN secretary general “to show
moral and political responsibility and leadership, involving the entire UN
system, in order to prevent further international crimes committed by Azerbaijan
in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
“Please do not forget that Artsakh is currently the only territory in the world
that is under complete siege and where even the international community does not
have access. Don’t you have a question as to why Azerbaijan seeks to subject the
peaceful people of Artsakh to complete isolation? Are you not bothered by the
fact that from the point of view of human rights protection Artsakh has become
not even a gray zone, but a black hole where all the crimes that human
civilization has seen may happen? Do you not realize that such international
impunity and allowing a new genocide will generate new crimes, possibly against
your own peoples?! Therefore, I ask and demand from all of you that you
immediately take action and stop this ongoing genocide of the people of Artsakh
before it is too late,” the leader of Nagorno-Karabakh underscored.
Azerbaijan routinely brushes aside accusations that it pursues a policy of
ethnic cleansings against Karabakh Armenians. After the 2020 war in which
Azerbaijan regained control of all of the territories held by ethnic Armenian
forces outside the borders of Nagorno-Karabakh as well as a chunk of the former
autonomous oblast itself Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly
warned the local population to integrate into Azerbaijan or leave.
Tensions around the region escalated after Azerbaijan in June suspended traffic
through a checkpoint it had installed in the Lachin corridor two months earlier
pending an investigation after it said “various types of contraband” had been
discovered in the Red Cross vehicles coming from Armenia.
Baku says it can only allow supplies to reach Nagorno-Karabakh over a road from
Agdam, a town controlled by Azerbaijan in the east of the region.
Ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh reject this offer, saying
Azerbaijan’s blockade is a violation of the Moscow-brokered 2020 cease-fire
agreement that placed the 5-kilometer-wide strip of land under the control of
Russian peacekeepers.
The United States and the European Union have urged Azerbaijan to allow
humanitarian supplies to reach Nagorno-Karabakh via the Lachin corridor.
A delegation led by staff members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee
on August 8 visited the site in Armenia’s southern Syunik Province where a
19-truck convoy with humanitarian aid heading from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh
has been stranded, awaiting approval from Azerbaijan to proceed.
A group of UN experts issued a statement on August 7, expressing alarm over the
ongoing blockade of the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijan, which they said had led
to a dire humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh. They urged Azerbaijan to lift
the blockade.
“By lifting the blockade, the authorities can alleviate the suffering of
thousands of people in Nagorno-Karabakh and allow for the unimpeded flow of
humanitarian assistance to the civilian population. It is essential to ensure
the safety, dignity, and well-being of all individuals during this critical
time,” the experts said, also calling on Russian peacekeeping forces deployed in
the region to protect the corridor under the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized the UN experts for what it
described as their biased statement that it claimed had been influenced by
“Armenia’s manipulations.”
Armenian FM Briefs Foreign Counterparts On ‘Deepening Humanitarian Crisis’ In
Nagorno-Karabakh
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan (file photo)
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan held a series of phone calls with his
foreign counterparts on Wednesday, briefing them on what he described as a
“deepening humanitarian crisis” in Nagorno-Karabakh brought on by Azerbaijan’s
continuing blockade of a vital route of supplies from Armenia.
The press office of Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said Mirzoyan held telephone
conversations with the foreign ministers of Lithuania, Bulgaria, Greece, Spain,
as well as with a senior U.S. Department of State officials.
According to an official report, talking to his Lithuanian counterpart
Gabrielius Landsbergis, Mirzoyan emphasized the urgency of supplying food,
medicine and other essential goods to Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the need to
ensure the full and uninterrupted functioning of the International Committee of
the Red Cross, the only international humanitarian organization with access to
Nagorno-Karabakh.
He also stressed the importance of “taking concrete steps by international
actors, including the EU and EU member states, in order to lift the blockade of
the Lachin corridor and to prevent Azerbaijan’s steps aimed at ethnic cleansing
in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Raising similar concerns during his phone calls with his Greek and Bulgarian
counterparts, George Gerapetritis and Mariya Gabriel, the Armenian foreign
minister also reportedly stressed the importance of the immediate lifting of the
blockade of the Lachine corridor in accordance with the decisions of the
International Court of Justice of February 22 and July 6.
Mirzoyan was also quoted as pointing out Azerbaijan’s “unacceptable acts of
intimidation”, referring to the recent detention of a Nagorno-Karabakh resident
accused by Baku of allegedly perpetrating war crimes in the early 1990s that
Yerevan calls abduction.
In his telephone conversation with Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European
Union and Cooperation Jose Manuel Albares Bueno Mirzoyan reportedly emphasized
“the seriousness of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and the lack of necessary
medical care resulting from the complete blockade of the Armenian-populated
region since June 15, especially for the most sensitive groups such as 30,000
children, 20,000 elderly and 9,000 persons with disabilities.”
Talking to Yuri Kim, Acting Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, the Armenian minister reportedly said
that “the continuous deterioration of the humanitarian situation in
Nagorno-Karabakh itself threatens the efforts of Armenia and the international
community aimed at establishing a sustainable peace in the region.” Mirzoyan,
according to the official report, emphasized the need “to make the best use of
existing mechanisms and to immediately remove the blockade of the Lachin
corridor in accordance with the decisions of the International Court of Justice.”
“Both sides noted the need to take steps to resolve the situation and agreed to
continue contacts in that direction. Minister Mirzoyan emphasized the need for
joint efforts of the international community in the current situation,” the
Armenian Foreign Ministry’s statement said.
Armenian Group Threatening To End Karabakh Blockade By Force Claims More
Obstruction From Police
• Ruzanna Stepanian
A scuffle between police officers and members of the Crusaders group protesting
in Republic Square, Yerevan, August 8, 2023.
A group of Armenian war veterans threatening to “take matters into their own
hands” unless authorities make efforts to swiftly end the Azerbaijani blockade
of Nagorno-Karabakh have claimed more obstruction from police after arriving in
the south of Armenia.
Members of the group called Crusaders that mostly consists of veterans of
Karabakh wars said they arrived on Wednesday morning at a site near a bridge
over the Hakari river marking the entrance to the Lachin corridor linking
Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh where Azerbaijan installed a checkpoint earlier
this year and tightened the effective blockade of the Armenian-populated region
two months ago.
Armenia and ethnic Armenian authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh consider the
Azerbaijani checkpoint at the Lachin corridor illegal as they insist its
violates a Moscow-brokered 2020 ceasefire agreement that places the vital route
under the control of Russian peacekeepers.
The de facto blockade has resulted in severe shortages of food, medicine, and
energy supply in the region which is home to about 120,000 ethnic Armenians.
Azerbaijan denies blockading Nagorno-Karabakh and offers an alternative route
for supplies via the town of Agdam, which is situated east of the region and
away from Armenia and is controlled by Baku. Ethnic Armenian authorities in
Nagorno-Karabakh reject that offer, fearing that it could be a prelude to the
absorption of what remains of the former autonomous oblast into Azerbaijan.
Armenia has called for the reopening of the Lachin corridor, but officials in
Yerevan have rejected any scenario of using force to unblock access to
Nagorno-Karabakh.
As many as 14 members of the Crusaders group were detained on Tuesday during a
protest in front of the government offices in central Yerevan demanding that
they be armed with the intention of unblocking the corridor by force. The
Interior Ministry told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that 13 of them were released
shortly, but one protester was transferred to a preliminary investigation body
on suspicion of carrying a knife.
It is unclear whether the obscure group has any immediate plans to try to
confront the Azerbaijani checkpoints.
After spending some time in the vicinity of the Hakari bridge Crusaders members
reportedly went back to the village of Kornidzor and then further to Goris.
One of the group members, Hovhannes Hovhannisian, published a video on TikTok,
claiming that the police blocked their way in Kornidzor and did not allow them
to move forward.
“We have arrived here, look with how many people they are blocking our way. They
don’t let us go and pass this food [to Nagorno-Karabakh],” he said, referring to
a convoy of 19 trucks with humanitarian aid that has been stranded near the
entrance to the Lachin corridor on the Armenian side for nearly two weeks
awaiting Azerbaijan’s approval to proceed to Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Let those who are Armenians, let veterans join us. But instead of joining us,
instead of taking up arms and coming with us, they [police] point guns at us and
threaten us with weapons,” Hovhannisian added.
Kornidzor village mayor Arshak Karapetian said that he did not have time to talk
to the Crusaders and did not know what the group members were going to do in
Goris.
“I just came to say hello and brought some water for them to drink. There were
about 20-25 of them,” Karapetian said.
Before setting off to the southern Syunik province Crusaders members visited a
military cemetery in Yerevan where soldiers killed in Nagorno-Karabakh wars are
buried. From the place called Yerablur the commander of the group, Sargis
Poghosian, called on others to join them.
“It seems to me that this is our last chance, we must do it, we must fight, we
must not retreat, we must be able to win to save the people of Artsakh
[Nagorno-Karabakh – ed.], we must save our families, our fellow Armenians. Dear
people, we must not leave the people of Artsakh alone. Folks, come and join us
before it is too late. Come and join us so that we can at least open the road,
at least let food enter Artsakh, at least let people there go to bed with their
stomachs full,” Poghosian said.
Official Baku has not yet commented on the presence of Armenian war veterans
near the Azerbaijani checkpoint at the Hakari bridge threatening to unblock the
road passing through what Azerbaijan considers to be its sovereign territory. In
the recent past, however, both political and military officials in Azerbaijan
vowed decisive actions against any “Armenian provocation.”
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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