The war in Ukraine is already horrifying, with Russian torture chambers and the slaughter of civilians. However, there is another country taking advantage of the chaos to commit its own crimes against humanity.

Allow me to introduce Azerbaijan.

You may not be familiar with Azerbaijan’s brutality towards the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, but it definitely deserves our attention. Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, who I’ve known since he sought accountability for the genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region, now compares the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh to a genocide.

In a recent report, Ocampo wrote, “There is an ongoing genocide against 120,000 Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

When we think of genocide, we typically imagine mass killings. However, according to the 1948 Genocide Convention, it encompasses a broader definition that includes “acts committed with intent to destroy” a specific ethnic, racial, or religious group, even without mass killings.

Ocampo argues that Azerbaijan is carrying out this genocide by blockading Nagorno-Karabakh, causing people to die or flee and effectively erasing an ancient community. Starvation, he emphasizes, is the invisible weapon of genocide. Without immediate intervention, he warns that this group of Armenians will be destroyed within weeks.

Labeling this as genocide is of critical importance, according to Ocampo. It is crucial for the United States, Britain, and other world powers to step up pressure on Azerbaijan.

The concept of genocide emerged in response to the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and 1916, making Azerbaijan’s starvation tactics a chilling echo of history. Organizations like Genocide Watch, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, and the International Association of Genocide Scholars have all issued warnings about the risk of genocide and called for Azerbaijan to be held accountable for its crimes against humanity.

The crisis began when Azerbaijanis began blockading the only road into Nagorno-Karabakh, the Lachin corridor to Armenia, which is essential for the territory’s supply of food and medicine.

Reports from Nagorno-Karabakh paint a bleak picture. “People are fainting in the bread queues,” says a local journalist quoted by the BBC. The Halo Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to clearing minefields, had to suspend operations because its staff were too exhausted from queuing for bread all night and returning home empty-handed. A third of deaths in Nagorno-Karabakh are attributed to malnutrition, according to local authorities. While I cannot independently verify these reports, the evidence suggests a dire situation that is worsening day by day.

Unfortunately, it seems that the West is fatigued and focused on its own internal issues. It has shown little attention to global crises beyond Ukraine, from atrocities in Ethiopia to Sudan’s warlords slaughtering civilians. Dictators find this to be an opportune time to commit war crimes.

To understand the conflict, it’s essential to note that authoritarian Azerbaijan has a predominantly Muslim population speaking a Turkic language, while Nagorno-Karabakh has a mostly Christian population that speaks Armenian. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Nagorno-Karabakh sought independence. A war ensued, ending with a stalemate where the enclave operated autonomously but maintained close ties with neighboring Armenia. In 2020, Azerbaijan waged a brief war, retaking most of the enclave and now aiming to reclaim the rest, likely intending to displace much of the ethnic Armenian population.

While the world, including Armenia’s prime minister, recognizes that Nagorno-Karabakh’s sovereignty belongs to Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan argues for the political and economic integration of the territory with the rest of the country. However, what Azerbaijan is doing is not integration; it is starvation. Both the United States and Russia agree that Azerbaijan should reopen the Lachin corridor and end the suffering.

One potential compromise is outlined by Benyamin Poghosyan of the Applied Policy Research Institute of Armenia. Azerbaijan would open the Lachin road while Nagorno-Karabakh simultaneously opens one or more roads into Azerbaijan. The U.S. State Department hinted at this approach in a statement condemning the blockade. As part of the compromise, Azerbaijan would guarantee the freedom of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Admittedly, this compromise is unsatisfactory, as it rewards Azerbaijan for starving civilians, and there is skepticism about Azerbaijan’s promises. However, diplomats often have to devise flawed agreements that are preferable to the alternatives. In this case, a defective deal is better than mass starvation and ethnic cleansing of Armenians.

https://vigourtimes.com/opinion-is-armenians-ethnic-cleansing-happening-once-more/