Azerbaijan's siege on Artsakh

BBC Research

Genocide denied is genocide continued. Since September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan has laid siege on Artsakh, a disputed area of land between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Armenian and Artsakh forces fought back and defended themselves against Syrian mercenaries, Turkish- and Israeli-funded warfare and multitudes of war crimes. Despite multiple ceasefire attempts, which Azerbaijan violated several times, the world failed to take action. On November 10th, 2020, a treaty was signed by Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, effectively ending the war between Azerbaijan and Artsakh and introducing a cultural and ethnic cleansing of Artsakh. Of the seven provinces within the Artsakh region, five of them were handed over to Azerbaijan. This resulted in the displacement of more than 150,000 Armenians from Artsakh to mainland Armenia. As a result, Armenian cultural artifacts in Artsakh, such as churches and gravestones, are at risk of removal, similar to the previous ethnic and cultural cleansing of the former Armenian territory of Nakhichevan, where all traces of Armenian culture and heritage were destroyed when  Azerbaijan gained control over the land. Yet again, in broad daylight, imperialist and colonialist forces, as well as genocide perpetrators, have successfully committed multitudes of war crimes, effectively murdering indigenous people and being rewarded with the colonization of ethnic Armenian lands and people. 

The United States, which prides itself on spreading its moral values of democracy around the world, refused to defend Armenia, a small democratic nation surrounded by autocratic countries. Additionally, the United Nations, whose mission is to maintain international peace, remained complacent and made no impact in trying to stop this war. Lastly, inaccurate and false-equity journalism by highly regarded organizations, such as the New York Times, all contributed to encouraging Azerbaijan to continue its attacks and colonization efforts in Artsakh, allowing history to repeat itself. 

While Azerbaijan has continuously insisted the origin of Artsakh to be their own, the history of the region proves their claims baseless. Azerbaijan continues to make this claim because in 1921 Stalin partitioned off Artsakh, which was then part of Armenia, to Azerbaijan. In 1991, near the end of the Soviet Union, the indigenous Armenians living in the region declared their own independence and for four years fought to reclaim that land as their own. In 1994 they declared their independence. However, when the population of Artsakh enacted their right to self-determination, they became the legitimate settlers of that land under the UN Charter Article 1, which supersedes UN resolutions in such an event. However, unilateral declarations of independence are not prevented under international law when other nations do not recognize a region as an independent state. However, the current international order supports external recognition, implying that for Artsakh to be truly recognized as a state and independent, other states must prove it first. Hence why the diaspora has pushed for international recognition of Artsakh. Despite the right to self-determination, the UN did not take any precedent to negotiate a seizure in the fighting and the Azerbaijani invasion. Hence, through neutrality, the UN allowed and aided the genocide perpetrators and colonial forces. 

Such complacency, along with Azerbaijani hostilities led to Genocide Watch, an organization that seeks to predict, prevent, stop, and punish genocides, to declare a stage 9 and 10 genocide emergency warning to inform the world of the attempts of eradicating the indigenous Armenian civilians of Artsakh. However, both Turkey and Azerbaijan have repeatedly denied the attempts of extermination and genocide, but their actions deem otherwise. Throughout the war, Turkey hired Syrian mercenaries to fight for Azerbaijan along with supplying Azerbaijan with drones and missiles. These weapons and mercenaries were used by Azerbaijan and led to the bombing of Artsakh’s capital, Stepanakert, by cluster bombs, the shelling and bombing of a maternity hospital in Artsakh and the use of white phosphorus in the region of Artsakh. These are all war crimes according to the Geneva Convention which forms the basis for international and humanitarian treatment in war. 

The UN turned a blind eye to these warnings and genocidal events. It refused to take action in the face of substantial evidence of war crimes by Azerbaijan and failed to protect the legitimate settlers of Artsakh. The UN’s inaction encourages war crimes in the future and sets a precedent that the UN will remain as bystanders and enablers of such action. Genocide denied is genocide continued.

As one of the five permanent nations of the UN, the U.S. has failed to put pressure on the autocratic nations of Turkey and Azerbaijan, who for 44 days attempted to carry out another genocide of the Armenian people. However, with inaction by the U.S., the UN continued to remain neutral to the war crimes and genocidal efforts by states of Azerbaijan and Turkey. The United States, which prides itself on spreading its moral values of democracy around the world, continuously sends military aid to the dictatorial nations of Turkey and Azerbaijan while failing to defend the democratic nation of Armenia, fighting for its survival against genocidal perpetrators. The U.S., as a nation, stands as an oppressor as it sacrifices its moral code and values of democracy for the greed of oil and wealth.

Similar to the United States’ stance on the war, news outlets such as The New York Times and the BBC have been influenced by Azerbaijan’s and Turkey’s oil wealth, betraying their mission of fair reporting and representation. These news outlets who passively report and narrate “both sides are attacking each other,” stand as enablers of genocide. A democratic nation such as the United States should regard information from Azerbaijan with scrutiny since Azerbaijan ranks 168th out of 180 countries on the Press Freedom Index, while Armenia ranks 61st. Throughout this conflict, both sides accused the other as the aggressor and instead of trusting the word of Armenia and the international journalists within Artsakh, U.S. news outlets insisted that both sides were instigators and at the fault of the war. It labeled both sides as equally guilty in a clearly one-sided conflict. The inaccurate and false-equity journalism contributed to the loss of hundreds of Armenian lives, as false representation prolonged the war and helped perpetuate the continuation of genocide denial. Such journalism is directly at fault in handing over Armenian lands and cultural artifacts to a regime, which has historically erased all evidence of Armenians on their lands and whose sponsor, Turkey, has erased traces of Armenian existence during the 1915 genocide. The five codes of journalism are to report, honestly, to report objectively, to report with fairness, to gather information diligently and to be held accountable for their work. Within this conflict, it is evident that journalists from the U.S. deviated from this code. 

It has become evident that autocratic nations are kindred spirits with colonialist forces. Powerful politicians and investors continuously fund and ally with Azerbaijan as a result of the affluence of gold within the region of Artsakh. These motives became evident as gold mining companies prepared to move into the territory of Artsakh before the conclusion of the war. The power lent to Azerbaijan by the colonialist ideals of U.S. investors interested in material wealth has inherently driven further ethnic and cultural cleansing of the region of its people and culture. Azerbaijan’s allyships with Turkey and Israel as well as support from U.S. politicians have enabled a multitude of war crimes as their golden reward would lie in an abundance of elemental wealth and a greater disregard for the cultural richness. These ideals are not new to society as colonialism continues to conquer, extract and leave the indigenous community robbed of their independence, culture and natural wealth. As genocides continue against communities in Somalia, Sudan, the Uighursin China and the Assyrians in Iraq; the international community, as well as world leaders, stand by alliances that grant material wealth rather than protecting the human rights of indigenous people. 

As for Artsakh, the U.S. must re-engage in the MINSK group, which is a coalition between Russia, France and the U.S. whose goal is to broker peace in Artsakh in collaboration with Armenia and Azerbaijan, and must negotiate for a fair treaty which allows for Artsakh to keep their lands. The UN must stand by their own morals and code and actively aid in ensuring that Artsakh can keep its lands and are safe from future attempts of genocide. This cycle of genocide must be stopped. The international community must condemn and hold Azerbaijan and its allies, both diplomatic and within the media, accountable for the war crimes they have committed and their attempt at genocide against the Armenian people. Genocide denied is genocide continued.