Author: Samvel Nahapetian

Aug 9 2023

Catholic agencies say blockade preventing approximately 400 tons of aid material from Armenia to enter Nagorno-Karabakh

Deep in the Caucasus — at the crossroads of Asia and Europe — lies the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-populated enclave surrounded by Azerbaijan, which launched a military assault in September 2020 to regain control of the land.

Once a lush, bucolic area, populated for centuries by Christian Armenians and later Shiite Muslims, it has become an elusive point of contention between the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples since the decline and fall of the Soviet Union.

The enclave's isolation had been mitigated by the Lachin corridor, through which runs a road that has connected the region to Armenia proper. Since December 2022, however, Azerbaijani activists blockaded the route, in effect severing Nagorno-Karabakh and its ethnic Armenian residents from the outside world, with the exception of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Russian peacekeepers, who the combatants agreed could provide humanitarian support to the region.

This blockade tightened June 15 when all traffic on the lifeline, including the ICRC and Russian peacekeepers, was blocked. The ICRC "carried out transportation of medical patients and a very small amount of medicine … several times," after this ban, but on July 11, Azerbaijan accused the ICRC of "smuggling" through the corridor and restricted its movement entirely, according to Siranush Sargsyan, a reporter based in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh. The shortage of supplies for the region's population of 120,000 is acute.

Those blocking access are preventing approximately 400 tons of humanitarian aid from Armenia to enter Nagorno-Karabakh, reported Lusine Stepanyan, project manager for Caritas Armenia. The agency is a Catholic Near East Welfare Association partner that has supported refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh with food, medical supplies, education, psychosocial support and funds for housing.

CNEWA has provided aid for those displaced and cared for by Caritas and the Armenian Catholic Ordinariate.

Sargsyan noted in an interview with CNEWA that in her city of 60,000 people, "it's like hunting for food, for basic things."

"Usually, you go back (home) empty-handed," she said.

While supermarkets are practically empty, food products such as eggs and bread can be purchased from smaller shops and bakeries, but there is no guarantee that standing in the long lines will prove fruitful, she explained. For eggs, which are available to purchase every other day, people begin lining up around 5 a.m., but they are not distributed until 3 p.m., said Sargsyan. Even then, it is common for them to run out.

"It's already, I think, months that I can't find eggs, because I'm not ready to stand in a line and because … it's better that mothers buy for their kids," she said.

Sargsyan said this is the worst the humanitarian situation has been since the blockade began. She noted that winter posed its own set of challenges due to the cold, but the current shortage of food, medication and fuel has created a dire situation. Although supplies, before the blockade tightened in June, were still limited, and prices were not ideal, "at least it was possible" to find these items, she said.

The Artsakh Information Center reports "the electricity supply has been completely disrupted for 200 days," as well as the complete or partial interruption of the gas supply for 162 days. Ms. Sargsyan says this shortage has contributed to a spike in unemployment for those whose jobs are reliant on this supply, like taxi drivers; the Information Center estimates that 14,600 people have lost their jobs or source of income since the blockade began in December and the economy has "suffered a loss of around $435 million U.S. dollars."

Recent television interviews with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia highlight separate discussions on the path to peace, and what that would require for their respective nations. For Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, this includes Armenia relinquishing "all aspirations to contest our territorial integrity." Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said, "There must be peace," and that it is "important for the international community to be aware of important nuances," Reuters reported.

While their propositions for peace leave much uncertainty, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh remains a humanitarian crisis for those on the ground.

"We can say there always is a light at the end of the tunnel, but we don't see. It's like endless, this tunnel," said Sargsyan. "And every day it's getting darker and darker."

https://www.ucanews.com/news/acute-humanitarian-crisis-in-contested-region-of-caucasus/102230

Aug 10 2023

by ATHENS BUREAU

A leading expert in international law and former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) warned that Azerbaijan's blockade of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh constitutes genocide.

Luis Moreno Ocampo accused Azerbaijan of genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh as the humanitarian situation in the besieged region continues to worsen.

‘Starvation is the invisible Genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks, Ocampo wrote in a 28-page report on the Lachin corridor blockade published on 7 August.

‘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’, wrote Ocampo. ‘Starvation was also neglected when used in Srebrenica in the winter of 1993/1994’.

Ocampo suggested that Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev should be investigated by the ICC, explaining that that could only take place were the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution regarding the blockade of the Lachin corridor and refer it to the court.

In the report, he stated that there was ‘reasonable basis’ to believe that President Aliyev had genocidal intentions, having blocked the delivery of essential goods to Nagorno-Karabakh, disobeyed the orders of the International Court of Justice to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles, and cargo along the Lachin Corridor, and having ignored calls regarding the ‘real and imminent risk’ to the region’s Armenian population created by the blockade.

‘President Aliyev’s public statements affirming that the blockade was the consequence of people smuggling minerals and iPhones through the Lachin Corridor is a diversion. Smuggling activities should be properly investigated but they are not an excuse to disobey a binding order of the International Court of Justice or a justification to commit a Genocide’, wrote Ocampo.

He added that obtaining a UN Security Council resolution to provide ICC jurisdiction was ‘feasible’.

‘Under the Genocide Convention, state parties have an obligation to prevent and punish Genocide, and 14 of the current 15 members of the UN Security Council are also parties of that Convention, providing an overwhelming majority’, he added.

The statement also calls for cooperation between Russia, which oversees peacekeeping in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the United States and EU Member States. All are parties to the Genocide Convention, with Ocampo stating that they are in the ‘privileged position’ to prevent the genocide.

‘Their intense confrontation due to the Ukrainian conflict should not transform the Armenians into collateral victims’, wrote Ocampo.

Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant to Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev, called the report ‘biased’ and ‘anti-Azerbaijani’.

Azerbaijan denies blockade

Despite the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh continuing to deepen, with neither peacekeepers nor Red Cross able to transport basic goods and humanitarian aid into the region, Azerbaijan’s government in Baku has maintained its denial that any blockade is taking place.

In response to a call on Monday by UN Human Rights Experts to lift the blockade and open the Lachin corridor, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry gaslit by dismissing the accusations as 'political manipulations' by UN experts.

The statement added that ‘the usage […] of expressions such as ‘Nagorno-Karabakh’ in clear disrespect of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, the interference in the internal affairs of Azerbaijan, as well as the double standards against it […] are unacceptable’.

In recent days, authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh have released reports describing the worsening humanitarian situation in the region, noting that mortality rates were significantly higher than average.

The region’s Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday that mortality due to cardiovascular disease had more than doubled, with rates in July 2.6 times higher than the same month of the previous year.

‘This includes a 66% increase in mortality from acute and chronic heart failure, a 20.8% increase in mortality from acute myocardial infarction, and an 8.8% increase in mortality from brain paralysis’, it wrote.

Provision of medical supplies to the region has been suspended since mid-June, when Azerbaijan blocked the transport of humanitarian aid into the region. Transport of patients to Armenian hospitals is also taking place at minimal rates, with Red Cross transport of severely ill patients resuming after Azerbaijan blocked the organisation’s access to the region.

On 29 July, Azerbaijani border guards arrested a 68-year-old resident of the region as he was being evacuated to Armenia by the Red Cross for heart surgery, accusing him of genocide.

Shortages of food and other essential supplies have worsened in the months since the Azerbaijan blocked deliveries of humanitarian aid.

https://greekcitytimes.com/2023/08/11/former-icc-prosecutor-azerbaijan/#google_vignette

Canada – Aug 4 2023

• Dylan Robertson

OTTAWA – 

The Canadian government is again blaming Azerbaijan for escalating tensions in its Nagorno-Karabakh region, saying it is concerned about the "deteriorating humanitarian situation" for Armenians living in that region.

Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but it is mostly populated by Armenians, and neighbouring Armenia has fought for control of the region for decades.

Tensions rose in the area last fall, when the region's main access road was blocked by groups of people suspected of being affiliated with the Azerbaijan government, and then by officials who have limited vehicle access.

Azerbaijan insists the region isn't under a blockade, despite Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch saying food and essentials are severely restricted.

Last week, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it's been denied access to all routes into the region, resulting in shortages for medicine, food and baby formula.

Canada is planning on sending two officials to support a European monitoring mission that is aiming to prevent another war in the region.

The Red Cross expressed alarm about Azerbaijan's blocking of the area shortly after that country's foreign ministry cited the group's access to the area as proof that there was no blockade.

The Red Cross said last week it has been able to evacuate "more than 600 people in urgent need of medical care since December 2022," but still has trouble accessing the region in order to provide medical services.

Global Affairs Canada said in a social media post Tuesday that Azerbaijan should comply with the International Court of Justice's order to allow the "unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo" into the region.

Azerbaijan's foreign ministry noted that the court order still allows for the inspection of vehicles entering the territory, and has alleged that the route has been used by elements affiliated with Armenia to smuggle weapons into the area.

Canadian MPs heard testimony in January about limited access to the region, but the House of Commons foreign affairs committee hasn't completed its study or issued an interim report on how Canada should respond.

The federal government plans to open an embassy in Armenia shortly, and Liberal officials often attend Armenian diaspora events.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 4, 2023.