SBS, Australia
Sept 6 2023
TRANSCRIPT
In the Western region of Azerbaijan lies the mountainous enclave of Nagorno Karabakh, known by its Armenian population as Artsakh.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars and suffered thousands of casualties as each side stakes a historical claim to the land.
Since December of 2022, Azerbaijani forces have formed a blockade along a road known as the Lachin corridor.
It's the only road linking the 120,000 ethnic Armenians in the region, to Armenia and the outside world.
They call the corridor, "the road of life".
On the first of September, the Armenian Australian community gathered in Sydney, calling on the Australian government to take action against what many fear could end in a genocide.
"End the blockade! End the blockade! Unblock Artsakh! Unblock Artsakh!"
A few hundred from the community of over 50,000 Armenians living in Australia gathered at Town Hall Square .
For many here, this protest is far from their first.
John Jack Kajakajian of the Armenian Youth Federation of Australia, says he has been marching for the recognition of Armenian history since he was five years old.
"Nineteen fifteen never again. They were the words I used to scream at the age of five. Passed down from generation to generation. Me, a five year old child, bearing the wound of intergenerational trauma, marched through our CBD, participated in protest, screaming nineteen fifteen never again. All with the hopes that my ancestors history will never be repeated"
The protests organiser and the executive director of the Armenian National Committee of Australia, Michael Kolokossian, says the people living in Artsakh have been cut off from essential supplies.
"People are malnourished, and there's been reports of one in every three deaths being as a result of starvation and malnutrition. The people don't have basic supplies, that would allow them to live a happy and fruitful life, because of this, this genocidal blockade that Azerbaijan has placed on Artsakh since the 12th of December 2022"
Clutching home-made signs beneath their arms, the Armenian flag draped across their backs, hundreds – many of them children – piled out out of buses into Sydney's Town Hall square in the city's CBD.
"Our community is active, they've never given up, and they won't give up. They won't give because they understand the trauma that their parents and their grandparents faced in not being able to speak about these issues, and today the youth of our community are the ones on the forefront leading this cause."
Whilst the Australian government has not made a public statement regarding the blockade, international organisations and human rights groups have called for the immediate opening of the Lachin corridor.
In April, following orders from the International court of Justice to re-open the corridor, Azerbaijan instead installed a military checkpoint, a move their president, Ilham Aliyev ((ah-LEE-yuff)) says was in response to Armenia and the Red Cross allegedly misusing the corridor.
Access through the corridor is now completely shut off, cutting off humanitarian aid including food, fuel and medical supplies from reaching the 120,000 Armenians living there.
Mr Kolokossian says many of them are particularly vulnerable.
"Amnesty International is reporting that these people are living in peril, thre's Armenian children waiting in line for bread, for hours, in the early hours of the morning. There's women who don't have access to baby formula. So we want Australia to participate in an airlift into Artsakh to prove the 30,000 children, the 20,000 elderly and the 9000 living with disabilities, the most basic supplies that they're entitled to."
According to Azerbaijan, humanitarian access is available through the alternative route of Aghdam, a road referred to by local Armenians, as the road of death.
A spokesperson from Artsakh describes the proposed alternative as a ploy, intended to deflect international attention from the crisis.
These concerns were echoed by the International Committee of the Red Cross, who, in July, released a statement noting that attempts at delivering aid to the region has been blocked at all entrances, including Aghdam.
But, at an emergency UN meeting called upon by Armenia's government, Azerbaijan's United Nations representative, Yashar Aliyev ((ah-LEE-yuff)), says Azerbaijan categorically rejects the claims a crisis is occurring.
"Armenia's actions are nothing but the embodiment of designed political hypocrisy, and it's appeal to the security council is part of the campaign that it has been pursuing over the months to manipulate and mislead the international community."
In August, prominent former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, released a 28-page document calling for the blockade to be considered a genocide against the Armenians, adding that President Aliyev cannot use these tactics to force a negotiation.
"And they have not seen food for the last month, so they will die in a few weeks. So we need to open the corridor not because a negotiation because it's a genocide, and US, European Union cannot be confused about President Aliyev and President Aliyev have to understand he cannot be authorized to commit a genocide, to force a negotiation"
Over the last few weeks, Armenian officials and residents of Nagorno Karabakh have reported kidnappings at the checkpoint and as military tensions build, both Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have accused each other of provocation.
An agreement between the two countries is yet to be reached and the future of the region, as well as the people living there, remains unclear.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/podcast-episode/living-in-peril-australian-armenians-protest-over-humantarian-crisis-in-nagorno-karabakh/rlbwepb7n