by Karnig Kerkonian 

For seventeen days, Azerbaijani special forces and military personnel—masquerading as “environmentalists”—have blocked the only road connecting Artsakh to Armenia.

They have effectively severed the only lifeline the Artsakh Armenians have to the outside world—a lifeline guaranteed by the Trilateral Statement of November 10, 2020. With 120,000 Artsakh Armenians now completely encircled and isolated, Azerbaijan is poised to rid itself of the entire Armenian population this holiday season, and it will try to do so while Europe sips hot chocolate and watches.

Frankly, it is rare to have the opportunity to witness mass atrocity as it unfolds, but social media and Azerbaijan’s impunity have given the West an opportunity to watch the ongoing travesty on their iPhones. Azerbaijani sources excitedly publish their atrocities against Armenians online. In fact, Azerbaijan has proudly telegraphed its intentions to ethnically cleanse Artsakh of Armenians—and the lead-up has been quite entertaining, at least for the sadists.

The movie trailers promise a rather captivating show. An Armenian woman in Azerbaijani captivity, her eyes gouged out, her finger severed and shoved into her mouth, her empty eye sockets plugged with stones, hate speech carved into her bare, exposed chest. A video showing an elderly Armenian man in Artsakh, squirming on his back in the grass and weeds as an Azerbaijani soldier mercilessly continues to saw off his head with a dagger. Armenian POWs brought to their knees, tied and bound like animals. Azeri soldiers, in sickening euphoria, unloading bullet after bullet after bullet into the heads and backs of young Armenian boys. Yet, Azerbaijan assures the West that it is looking for peace and “coexistence”.

Independent observers, however, tell quite a different story. The International Association of Genocide Scholars has proclaimed that “[s]ignificant genocide risk factors exist in the Nagorno-Karabakh situation concerning the Armenian population.” Genocide Watch has raised the genocide threat level facing Artsakh Armenians beyond the “dehumanization” stage and even the “preparation” stage into the “persecution” and “denial” stages. Indeed, the former Armenian Human Rights Defender, Arman Tatoyan, along with the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention have warned that Azerbaijan’s “actions are part of a larger genocidal pattern, demonstrating Azerbaijan’s Armenophobia and genocidal intent [aimed at] the eradication of Armenia, Artsakh, and the Armenians.”

Azerbaijan demands that Artsakh Armenians be subjected to Azerbaijani authority—against their will. This is quite the cocktail: dictatorship, subjugation and genocide. But the West need remember that, after the Holocaust, it rewrote the book on watching dictators round up and deliver humans to their slaughter. Let’s be clear: “coexistence” under Azerbaijani authority is not only an utterly ridiculous proposition; it is patently inhumane, intellectually vapid—and, frankly, impermissible. We would never imagine subjecting a population of 120,000 Jews today to the authority of a rabid Nazi regime—or any Nazi regime, for that matter.

But, for the Armenians, let’s go with “coexistence”. After all, Azerbaijan is doing a rather bang-up job laundering sanctioned Russian gas through Baku to help Europe evade sanctions and stay warm for the winter. Only the French President has stated that he is not willing to trade winter warmth for the lives of the Armenian people. The rest of Europe seems to be just fine trading some dead Armenians for thick wool socks, a gas fireplace and some hygge.

And make no mistake: the Azerbaijani peace agenda has no credible basis—Azerbaijan has violated every single ceasefire since 2020, and its hereditary dictator (who, incidentally, sports a mustache curiously similar to Hitler’s) has openly admitted that he launched the 2020 war to bring an end to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through force. Peace agendas usually involve negotiations—not summary executions, medieval beheadings, and open promises by a dictator to drive Armenians out “like dogs”. But then again, as long as the Europeans are toasty and warm, Azerbaijan appears free to starve and then ethnically cleanse the Artsakh Armenians.

There is a history of this too—and I am not even speaking of the Armenian Genocide (in which the Azerbaijanis, again with the help of their Turkish brothers, gladly participated). Azerbaijan’s march toward ethnic cleansing and genocide is blindingly clear in our own lifetimes. In response to peaceful demonstrations in Artsakh for unification with Armenia, Azerbaijan launched pogroms and massacres of Armenians in Sumgait, Kirovabad, and other cities in the late 1980s. Since then, Azerbaijan has only further institutionalized its Armenophobia, breeding and curating hatred toward Armenians at every turn.

More recently, Azerbaijan has offered its viewers a slew of genocide party favors: a stamp issued by Azerbaijan displays an exterminator in a Hazmat suit “exterminating” Artsakh; a military trophy park showcasing the helmets of fallen soldiers, gruesome mannequins of Armenians for children to mock and degrade; President Erdogan of Turkey praising Nuri Pasha, of Armenian Genocide era fame, at a military parade in Baku. Frankly, it is unclear what else Baku has to do to telegraph to the world its intention to eliminate the Artsakh Armenians.

The smell of genocide wafts unmistakably in the air. Just a year ago, the International Court of Justice itself indicated provisional measures ordering Azerbaijan to “[t]ake all necessary measures to prevent the incitement and promotion of racial hatred and discrimination, including by its officials and public institutions, targeted at persons of Armenian national or ethnic origin.” The case against Azerbaijan was brought under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination—a treaty in place as a stop-gap measure to prevent (you guessed it) genocide. Of course, it has not stopped Azerbaijan from targeting the Artsakh Armenians or, for that matter, even claiming the capital of Armenia as its own. You really can’t make this up.

But back to the blockade. No consignments of food or medicine can now reach Artsakh, and patients cannot be transferred to Armenia for life-saving treatment. Azerbaijan, at one point, even deliberately cut off the gas supply to Artsakh, subjecting the isolated population to subzero winter temperatures. As a result of this cruelty, schools, kindergartens, and hospitals were unable to be heated. Two weeks on, the food shelves are empty, the medicine cabinets are bare, and families are separated.

More than 270 children were left stranded on a road, meters from where civilian-clad Azerbaijani special forces kill peace pigeons and flash hand signs pledging allegiance to the “Grey Wolves”—an ultra-fascist hate organization banned in several countries.

There is no question a genocide is looming in Artsakh. The West, cozy with Russian gas laundered through Azerbaijan, can’t find that voice to condemn Azerbaijan or even call for humanitarian intervention. Europe has secured itself a front-row seat for this human catastrophe; now, let’s see if it has the stomach to watch it unfold.

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About the author

Mr. Karnig Kerkonian is a distinguished international lawyer who leads the international and federal practice groups at Kerkonian Dajani LLP.  Kerkonian holds an A.B. magna cum laude in Government from Harvard University and two law degrees—a J.D. from the University of Chicago, where he served on the Law Review, as well as a post-graduate Diploma in Public International Law from Cambridge University, England, where he studied under James R. Crawford, Judge on the International Court of Justice.

This article was originally contributed to ZARTONK Media by Karnig Kerkonian and is republished with permission.

Image credit: Hrayr Badalyan

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At the behest of the #Azerbaijani regime associated with terrorism, there is a pattern of altering the attire of terrorists to align with their propagandistic narrative. These individuals, who are consistently identified as terrorists, exhibit a versatile facade. They might portray themselves as members of the Red Crescent on one occasion, only to swiftly transform into so-called “eco-activists” the following week. One of them is depicted in the photograph. end #ArtsakhBlockade

In an apparent effort to whitewash its lengthy record of human rights violations and disregard for international law, the Azerbaijani authorities, who have caused a humanitarian disaster in Artsakh, have now unilaterally decided to send “humanitarian aid” to the victims of their own actions.

STEPANAKERT,  AUGUST 29, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS: Nagorno-Karabakh has been blockaded by Azerbaijan since December 2022. The blockade has led to a humanitarian crisis, with shortages of all essential products.

Azerbaijan had previously claimed to be willing to send supplies through the Aghdam road. This was viewed in Nagorno-Karabakh as an attempt by Baku to subjugate them. Nagorno-Karabakh rejected the offers on receiving any Azeri aid through the Aghdam-Stepanakert road despite the crisis.

On August 29, Azerbaijani news media reported that the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society will send 40 tons of flour to the Aghdam-Stepanakert road in what Azerbaijan hypocritically described as a “humanitarian gesture.”

People in Armenia have become a little more desperate and indifferent. But at the same time, people understand well what is happening around them. Los Angeles-based doctor and public figure Yunona Hakobjanyan said on the air of 168TV’s “Review” program, talking about the impressions she got from her visit to Armenia this time.

According to him, a few years ago, when he came to Armenia from the USA and took a taxi while going somewhere, he often argued with the drivers because he was trying to show the reality, but today there is no need for it, people see and realize it. what is happening, What is the reality?

“Compared to the rest of the world, Armenia is very well aware of what is happening, maybe this is because we have suffered many more things as a nation: the earthquake, and before that, the Armenian Genocide,” Yunona Hakobjanyan added.

Speaking about the situation created in Artsakh, the blockade and the psychological pressures carried out by Azerbaijan under those conditions, our interlocutor said that psychologically Azerbaijan has always oppressed the Armenians of Artsakh.

“I think the people of Artsakh are used to it. My hope is that the people of Artsakh are very strong, have always been and will be, they will not be subjected to these psychological pressures. When you think in one direction, God shows the other ways out for every person.

I lived in Armenia during the blockade of the 90s, we went through all that, we know those years. We should not wait for those days to come, we should help each other, we should help from this moment,” he emphasized.

In this context, our interlocutor called on the Armenians living outside of Armenia, if they start any business, they should create it in Armenia so that people can have a job here. Yunona Hakobjanyan responded to the observation that the RA government forbids many of the Diaspora Armenians from entering Armenia, in that case, what should they do in Armenia?

“They don’t ban everyone who can come, they can do it. It is true, in fact, they ban the most patriotic people and the most active critics of the government, but they will not be able to ban everyone. They are too small to be able to ban the Armenians of the whole world, the diaspora, that is not possible.

Now I am giving an example, Although there is a potential for this, there is talk, if the RA leadership signed that it does not have any debt or demand from Turkey related to the issue of the Armenian Genocide, that leadership represents Armenia, not Western Armenia and the diaspora, from where the Armenians in 1915 were removed from the settlements. It is clear that the Diaspora will again have the right to demand recognition of the Genocide, that document will not mean anything.

That nation, which is our enemy, there is another nation teaching them, which is our biggest enemy, they teach the Turks very well that the Diaspora must be defeated first, so that the issue of Armenia can be solved easily. Now they are busy with it, they need to be careful,” he emphasized.

Yunona Hakobjanyan also spoke about the protest actions carried out by Armenians in Los Angeles, noting that today they should not demand Adami Schiff to visit the Berdzor corridor, but should clearly raise the issue of recognizing the independence of Artsakh.

“Even if Adam Schiff agrees to go to Artsakh, Azerbaijan should say to himself: look, we are opening the road through Aghdam, but we know that it is death for Artsakh. By closing the roads, we should demand the right thing, to recognize the independence of Artsakh,” said Yunona Hakobjanyan, an American doctor.

Details in the video of 168.am

The Tip of the Iceberg

Understanding Azerbaijan’s Blockade of the Lachin Corridor as
Part of a Wider Genocidal Campaign against Ethnic Armenians.

Introduction
As the world condemns Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor, we must not lose sight of
the deeper threat fueling the humanitarian catastrophe: the full-scale ethnic cleansing and potential
genocide of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh

1 and parts of Armenia.

The University Network for Human Rights, in collaboration with students, lawyers, and
academics from Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights, UCLA’s Promise Institute for Human
Rights, Wesleyan University, and Yale’s Lowenstein Project conducted two fact-finding trips in
Nagorno-Karabakh and four in Armenia between March 2022 and July 2023. We documented atrocities
perpetrated by Azerbaijani forces against ethnic Armenians during the 44-Day Nagorno-Karabakh War in
2020, after the ceasefire, during the 2022 attacks in sovereign Armenia, as well as in times of relative
peace. Among these are extrajudicial killings of civilians, including the elderly and disabled; enforced
disappearance of Armenian troops; torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners of war;
death threats, intimidation, and harassment of residents of border communities; and life-threatening
restrictions on freedom of movement and access to vital infrastructure.
Our findings are based on dozens of firsthand testimonies from forcibly displaced persons,
families of missing or forcibly disappeared soldiers, families of victims of extrajudicial killings, returned
prisoners of war (POWs), and current residents of Nagorno-Karabakh and border communities in
Armenia. Most names have been altered to protect the privacy of victims and families.

1 Throughout this report, we use the term Nagorno-Karabakh. However, if an interviewee used the term “Artsakh”,
the Armenian term for Nagorno-Karabakh, we did not change the language of the original quote.

The uptick in abuses began during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, also known as the 44-Day
War, during which Azerbaijani and Armenian forces engaged in full-scale combat in and around
Nagorno-Karabakh. By the conclusion of the war, Azerbaijan had assumed control of a significant portion
of Nagorno-Karabakh; no Armenians remain in those areas: If they had not fled before their villages fell,
Azerbaijani forces captured or executed them. Despite provisions of the ceasefire agreement suspending
military activity, Azerbaijan has taken advantage of its expanded power to commit grave abuses against
the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian border towns, Armenian troops stationed close to the
line of contact, and prisoners of war in Azerbaijan’s custody.
In fall 2023, we expect to release a substantial report detailing violations committed by
Azerbaijani state forces after the conclusion of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, including the lack of
accountability for wartime atrocities, as well as ongoing threats to the security of the Armenians still
living in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian border villages. Our report will be based on testimonies from
nearly 100 residents of the region, thousands of pages of official and media reports, and analysis of open
source data, including satellite imagery and video content circulated on social media platforms. For now,
given the grave violations committed over the past three years and with increasing intensity in recent
weeks, the closure of the Lachin corridor, and the very real threat of mass forced displacement,
widespread starvation and genocide, we have decided to publish an abridged version of the report now.
We conclude here, and in the report to be issued, that the Azerbaijani government, at the highest
levels, has condoned, encouraged, facilitated the commission of or directly perpetrated the most egregious
forms of violence against Armenians. Moreover, the abuses we documented are not a string of unrelated
rights violations; taken together, these abuses reveal a synchronized, comprehensive campaign to
empty Nagorno-Karabakh and parts of Armenia of Armenians. Over the past three years, thousands
of Armenians have faced an impossible decision: abandon their homes — and sometimes their sick or
elderly family members — or face death or worse at the hands of Azerbaijani forces. Today, the population
of Nagorno-Karabakh, sequestered by Azerbaijan’s total prohibition on movement along the Lachin
Corridor, may not even have the luxury of choosing escape. As the humanitarian crisis in the Lachin
Corridor reaches a boiling point, the door is closing on the chance to prevent another genocide against
ethnic Armenians.

I. Forced Displacement

Azerbaijan has deployed a series of mutually reinforcing measures that have made life in
Nagorno-Karabakh impossible for its 120,000 inhabitants. Our team spoke with dozens of residents of
Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian border communities who described a range of abusive tactics intended
to cause or result in the forced displacement of ethnic Armenians: Intimidation through attacks,
surveillance, and direct threats of military attacks; complete control over who and what is allowed to enter
and exit Nagorno-Karabakh; arbitrary detention or abduction of Armenian civilians or troops inside
Nagorno-Karabakh and undisputed sovereign Armenian territory, as well as at border crossings; the
selective and arbitrary cessation or blockage of essential services (gas, electricity) and humanitarian aid;
the deliberate attack on sources of livelihood – namely agricultural lands and livestock, as well as tourism
assets; and the endangerment of food security, all against a backdrop of celebratory displays of torture and
3

killings of Armenians and unapologetic destruction of property and cultural heritage. This situation will
result in the mass exodus of ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh (if Azerbaijan lifts the blockade
of the Lachin corridor), the coerced surrender of the self-declared independent republic to Azerbaijan, or
the slaughter of the Armenians still living in Nagorno-Karabakh.
According to several people with whom University Network researchers spoke, one of the
principal forms of violence that has driven many from their homes has been Azerbaijani’s use of intense
and persistent shelling. For instance, in Khramort, a village on the eastern border of Nagorno-Karabakh
close to the frontline, residents claim that the shelling that occurred at the onset of the war still continued
when our team interviewed them in March 2022, just one day after they fled to Stepanakert. Susana, an
epidemiologist who lived in the village with her daughter and grandchildren, had already been displaced
earlier in the war from Hadrut, the location of some of the most brutal killings of civilians during the 2020
war. In Khramort in 2022, she explained how relentless shelling has impeded simple day-to-day
activities and caused many to flee. “There is no way to continue living in Artsakh. They are violating
human rights in every possible way from every possible side,” she lamented.
The Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) documented the
intimidation of the civilian population of Khramort and other border villages in a report published in
March 2022. The report presents detailed accounts of the use of high caliber weapons, including grenade
launchers and firearms, on agricultural lands and equipment and near administrative and residential areas,
prompting the evacuation of women and children as well as the cessation of all agricultural activity. Over
a period of five days, shelling from Azerbaijan pushed Armenian residents in seven different communities
from two of the easternmost regions of Nagorno-Karabakh to cease agricultural work and thus sacrifice
their only source of livelihood, and to abandon their homes. At the time that report was published, the
Human Rights Defender stated that “Russian peacekeepers are unable to provide security guarantees for
civilians engaged in agricultural work.” A year later, when University Network researchers returned to
Armenia to conduct additional fact finding, we found that Azerbaijani forces had attacked sovereign
Armenia as well, particularly in border villages of the Vardenis and Syuniq regions, using the same
tactics: shelling of administrative and civilian structures, firing on agricultural and grazing lands, as well
as killing or theft of livestock.
Azerbaijan has employed the mechanisms of forced displacement incrementally. This has led
to a general under-acknowledgement of the overarching threat presented by individual acts of
encroachment on the autonomy and security of Armenian communities in Nagorno-Karabakh and along
the Armenian border. To illustrate: Azerbaijan’s obstruction of freedom of movement along the Lachin
Corridor has gradually increased since the end of the 44-Day War. Based on information gathered by the
University Network through conversations with individuals and organizations familiar with the process of
transiting the Lachin corridor, we strongly believe that Azerbaijan played a decisive role in denying
foreigners, including journalists and human rights defenders, access to Nagorno-Karabakh. A year later,
freedom of movement was dramatically restricted even further, as the Azerbaijani government supported
— if not directly facilitated — protests by its citizens that blocked the corridor. The protests were
eventually replaced by the creation of the formal border checkpoint, followed by the installation of a
concrete barrier, until ultimately reaching a state of complete prohibition of all movement of people,
goods, services and humanitarian aid, including International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

medical transport vehicles. In a recent report explaining the crisis on the Lachin Corridor, International
Crisis Group wrote:

Baku appears to view the checkpoint as a way of asserting control of territory that legally belongs to
Azerbaijan but remains out of its hands under the armistice terms, and which Baku now refers to as the
‘former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast.’ Indeed, a mid-level Azerbaijani official characterised
the move to Crisis Group as a ́reclamation of sovereignty ́ (emphasis added by University Network).
Another Azerbaijani official told Crisis Group that Baku will use the new checkpoint to ́observe, control
and influence ́ Nagorno-Karabakh (emphasis added by University Network).
In parallel, Azerbaijan has taken advantage of its appropriation of basic infrastructure to
increasingly undermine Karabakh Armenians’ access to basic services. In February 2022, residents of
Nagorno-Karabakh started experiencing disruptions in the flow of gas through Shushi (Shusha), the city
that had been taken by Azerbaijan in the last days of the 2020 War. In September 2022, after Azerbaijan
acquired control of electricity cables traversing the Lachin Corridor, Nagorno-Karabakh drastically
increased its reliance on scarce internal water resources to generate hydroelectric power.
Territorial encroachment has also been incremental: After the initial transfer of some areas in
accordance with the terms of the 44-Day War ceasefire agreement, Azerbaijani forces moved further in on
sovereign Armenian territory on several occasions throughout 2021. These operations culminated in the
September 2022 attacks across four distinct civilian and touristic areas in the southeast of Armenia. The
September 2022 attacks brought with them another round of arbitrary detentions, torture of Armenian
captives, and summary executions.
There has been no reliable buffer between vulnerable Armenian communities and grave threats to
their security. Russian forces in Armenia, Lachin, and Nagorno-Karabakh have been insufficient to
protect civilian Armenian populations from intimidation, physical attacks, and arbitrary detention. While
the presence of the EU Mission in Armenia, a civilian monitoring mission created by the European Union,
has offered some oversight, at the time of writing, the threats facing the Armenian population of
Nagorno-Karabakh fall outside their mandate.
To say that this situation is unsustainable for Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh is a gross
understatement. Viewed alongside the discriminatory policies and hate speech emanating from the highest
levels of the Azerbaijani government, as well as directly from perpetrators of abuses as they are
committing them, there is only one way to read the situation: Azerbaijan is openly pursuing a policy of
ethnic cleansing and is dangerously close to carrying out the genocide of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Armenians.
Allegations of ethnic cleansing are not alarmist. Genocide Watch had issued a Genocide Warning
in September 2022, considering “Azerbaijan’s assault on Armenia and Artsakh” to have fulfilled four key
steps on the road to genocide: dehumanization, preparation, persecution and denial. In August 2023,
former ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampos asserted, “There is an ongoing Genocide against 120,000
Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

5

II. Arbitrary Detention, Torture and Enforced Disappearance
Azerbaijan arbitrarily detained, forcibly disappeared and tortured prisoners of war during the
2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. Many of these victims remain in custody or are unaccounted for. Following
the ceasefire, Azerbaijan has continued to carry out these same abuses against Armenians captured in
their incursions into sovereign Armenian territory.
Capture of Armenian soldiers occurred in places with no ongoing hostilities, as soldiers retreated
from combat zones in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as in contested border locations. Since the ceasefire,
Azerbaijan has seized Armenians outside the scope of regular military operations, including by
detaining Armenian civilians who accidentally crossed unmarked borders in disputed territory; detaining
villagers as they tended to their land and herded their livestock; and capturing Armenian soldiers in
groups through entrapment. The latter has occurred after surprising or luring in Armenian soldiers and
feigning good-faith negotiations.
Azerbaijani forces have also subjected Armenians to due process violations after detaining them,
including: spurious charges such as illegally crossing a border in the context of a territorial dispute; use of
coerced self-incriminating testimony; and lack of access to interpreters, adequate legal representation and
trial by an independent and impartial tribunal.
Torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment have taken place throughout detention,
and differences in conditions and treatment tend to correlate with the location or stage of detention: initial
capture, transfer, holding cell/military police custody, State Security Service (SSS) custody, and prison.
The worst treatment has taken place in the military police stations, in SSS buildings, or during the transfer
of captives between detention sites. The ICRC has had access to captives only when detainees are in
prisons (the final stage of captivity), not when they are in military police or SSS custody, therefore the
worst torture violations have gone unnoticed and unpunished.
Forms of torture and mistreatment have included prolonged and repeated beatings with batons,
skewers, brooms, and firearms; lacerating wrists with zip-ties; employment of electro-shock and stress
positions; sleep deprivation; confiscation of warm clothing during extreme cold; deprivation of food,
water, and hygiene products; and infliction of mental suffering and humiliation. Torture has sometimes
been accompanied by expressions of religious or ethnic discrimination. Additionally, Azerbaijani state
forces have often shared videos of torture on social media and public television, which serves to further
humiliate the victims, instill fear among Armenians, and perpetuate the forced displacement of those
remaining in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Perpetrators of torture have included soldiers, special forces, military police, SSS officials, as
well as guards and wardens in prisons and other detention centers. Azerbaijani forces also reportedly
recruited civilians, including doctors and their patients and minors, to participate in acts of torture in jails
and during transfers.
Hundreds of Armenians have been detained and at least 37 remain in detention as of August 17,

2023. These numbers likely do not capture the full extent of captivity, given that at least some of the
      people who have at some point been considered missing have been forcibly disappeared – held in secret
      detention in military police or SSS custody and subjected to the most extreme forms of torture. These
      6

Armenian POWs were detained in undisclosed sites and in Baku prisons while Azerbaijan denied
knowledge of detainees’ locations to the families, the ICRC, and the Armenian government, despite
video evidence that numerous individuals were in custody. University Network researchers interviewed
returned POWs who were in Azerbaijani custody for months before their status changed from “missing”
to “POW,” as well as returned POWs who reported being in detention in Azerbaijan alongside Armenians
who to this day are classified “Missing in Action” or “MIA.”
Some returned POWs have continued to face challenges even after their release. At least one
returned POW told the University Network that an Armenian National Security Service official
reprimanded him for not killing himself to avoid capture. In general, the Armenian government has not
provided adequate psychological support to returned POWs. With respect to missing persons, for nearly
two years, families of the missing have doubly suffered due to the Armenian government’s failure to
communicate clear and accurate information. This may be changing thanks to the creation of a new
institution dedicated to handling issues of POWs, hostages and missing persons.

Edgar: The longest day of my life
Azerbaijani forces captured Edgar along with two other Armenian soldiers when they
were several kilometers from Jermuk city in sovereign Armenian territory in September,
2022, nearly two years after the ceasefire that ended active hostilities over
Nagorno-Karabakh. The three Armenian servicemen had been separated from their unit
while following a command to retreat, one day after fighting erupted on the
Armenia-Azerbaijan border. After trekking through ravines and wading through rivers all
night, they were only a few hundred meters from safety when they were captured:
“We basically reached the forest. I couldn’t imagine in my worst nightmares that
the enemy had reached those places. We thought we were safe. When the
youngest guy felt really bad we decided to take a break and sleep for like two
hours and after that continue on our way. And when we woke around 7 in the
morning we saw the forest before our eyes, and we saw that there were only
several hundred meters to the forest, so we started moving and after we took
several steps the enemy sniper from behind a nearby boulder said ‘put down
your weapons or I’ll shoot’.”When they said put your weapons down, the boys
with me put down their weapons but I didn’t put down mine, thinking, ‘What
should I do?’ It was obvious if we put down our weapons… maybe we get taken
captive, maybe we get shot, maybe something worse happens (no need to go into
detail). I bought time by pretending I didn’t understand Russian… At that
moment it was dif icult to make the decision to live. I made that choice
remembering my mother, my sister… My guys turned around and looked at me
and asked me, please put down your weapon. So I put down my weapon and we
became captives.
At the beginning they were threatening us, taking out knives, making motions of
cutting ears. I wasn’t scared because I was sure I would pass out before they cut
my ears.

Edgar’s captors eventually transported him to military police custody in Azerbaijan:

7

“I stayed there for only one day, but it was the longest day of my life…They keep
you in a small room, there is a small hole in the door where they can watch you,
and you are supposed to stay still like this [sits upright and stif ens his body] all
the time, whether it is day or night or if you want to go to the toilet, it doesn’t
matter. They forced us to stand.

When the University Network interviewer asked how long, Edgar responded:

“Always….They only let us move when they gave us food, which happened once
a day, a piece of bread this size [holds his thumb and index finger about three
cm apart]. I was lucky because I was there only for one day, but the worst part
about being at the military police station is that four-five people came every
45-50 minutes and hit you very hard, really, really hard. It doesn’t matter if you
stayed still or moved. It was their job and they enjoyed it very much, I think.”
2

Edgar was in the prison for approximately one week before the first visit of the Red
Cross. On September 22, the day before the Red Cross came “we were brought a variety
of items – soap, shampoo, clothes, a pillow (until then we had no pillow), a blanket (until
then we didn’t have a blanket, it was cold), and they even set up a television set. They also
brought books.

“Before they had brought books that were basically Azerbaijani propaganda
about how awful Armenians are…When the Red Cross came they also brought
books translated into Armenian, Jack London, Agatha Christie…When we saw
the ICRC come we could finally breathe because that meant that the world
knew about us. Until then we thought we would be in Baku for months or years
and that would be considered disappeared.”

That fear was well-founded. Azerbaijani forces had captured Hagop in Armenia in
November 2021. Weeks transpired before Azrebaijani authorities of icially acknowledged
that Hagop was in their custody. In an interview with University Network researchers,
Hagob recalled how while he was in prison, an interrogator “told me that I was
considered to be MIA. He told me that they could do whatever they wanted to those of
us considered MIA—that they could kill and bury me and no one would ever know
anything.”

III. Extrajudicial Killings and Mutilation of the Deceased
Azerbaijani forces have carried out extrajudicial killings of Armenian soldiers and civilians both
during and following the 44-Day War for which no one has been held to account. Postwar killings have
ranged from the summary execution of soldiers in the wake of combat who had been injured and/or disarmed
prior to their execution to entering communities and killing the civilians who remain. Among
non-combatants who have been extrajudicially killed are the elderly and disabled who would not or
physically could not escape before Azerbaijani forces overtook their towns. Azerbaijan’s leadership
condones and encourages the cruelest forms of violence against Armenians through widespread hate
speech and racist propaganda, as well as by failing to investigate and hold perpetrators to account.

Read more on: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AzEf0YE7ECpdXzcAKkUVMBUGEUpDbHdH/view?pli=1

By Aleksander Lapshin,

Surprisingly few people know these two Aliev sixes in Armenia.

Meanwhile, all the evil that Ilhamostan is doing against Armenia and Artsakh comes from these two. On the left head of the SGB, General Ali Nagiev, and on the right head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Vilayat Evazov. All abductions, murders, blockades, gunfire, and provocation at the border are planned and executed by these two. By the way, it was these two, Nagiyev and Eyvazov who organized my kidnapping in Minsk and delivery to Baku, who organized an attack on me in the Baku prison to compromise Ilham Aliyev. Are you surprised? No surprise, this is a fight between the ruling clans in Ilkhamostan, they hate each other there more than you Armenians. They did a great job of setting the fool Aliyev up with my arrest for visiting Artsakh, and my victory at the ECHR in Strasbourg and at the UN (when the Baku regime was found guilty of unlawful arrest, torture and attempted murder) brought them joy.

It was these two slaps, first of all General Nagiyev, who were behind the organization of an unsuccessful attempt on me in Riga in December 2020. And it is these two right now that are waiting for the moment to get me (and not only me, there is a whole target list) in Yerevan and it will also fail.

Looking at these two faces, you can see that they are somewhat alike. Both have virtually no neck, grown into shoulders and closely planted eyes, which give a nomadic genotype. Both of them, judging by the type, shave the overgrown eyebrows. I wondered where they came from? It turned out that both are from Nakhichevan, one from the Bebek intestine, and the other from the Abragunis intestine. Practically neighboring intestines, they are relatives there in many ways and close marriages are the norm to this day.

By Harut Sassounian,

There are pro and anti-Armenian individuals of every nationality. Jews are no exception. There are Jews who support us and those who oppose us. We should not generalize and paint everyone with the same brush. Armenians should not treat every Jew as an opponent just because the Israeli government denies the Armenian Genocide and sells billions of dollars of arms to Azerbaijan.

Armenians have the right to criticize the Israeli government and Jews who are anti-Armenian. I severely condemned Israel’s denial of the Armenian Genocide in my 2015 lecture at an Israeli University. After the lecture, I met with the President of Israel Reuven Rivlin and told him that the government of Israel, whose own people were victims of genocide, should have been the first country to recognize the Armenian Genocide, not the last. Pres. Rivlin told me that he recognized the Armenian Genocide and blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for denying it.

I just received copies of two letters sent by a group of righteous Israelis to their country’s top officials, requesting that they intervene with Azerbaijan to unblock the Lachin Corridor.

The first letter was sent to Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on January 15, 2023, asking for his assistance to prevent “a grave humanitarian crisis and loss of life” due to Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor. The 17 prominent Jewish signers of the letter, including Rabbis, journalists and scholars, wrote: “We believe that you, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, through your ties with your counterparts in Azerbaijan and Russia, can help to avoid this grave humanitarian crisis. Therefore we ask that you approach them urgently to work for the lifting of the blockade of the Lachin Corridor.”

The second letter was sent on August 11, 2023, to Israel’s President Isaac Herzog who had recently visited Azerbaijan. The letter-writers requested him “to make a personal appeal to your counterparts in Azerbaijan and demand their immediate removal of the blockade of the Lachin Corridor.” The 35 prominent Jewish signers of the letter, including Rabbis, scholars, journalists, a former Cabinet Minister and Member of Knesset, architects and scientists, wrote: “The State of Israel enjoys close ties with Azerbaijan, the state which is responsible for this crisis, and has the ability to resolve it. These ties obligate the State of Israel to take a clear stand, and not to stand idly by…. The aid that we [Israel] provided [to Azerbaijan] means that we have a special responsibility not to be a bystander, and also gives us an important opportunity to have a positive impact. We cannot remain silent, especially in light of our historic and multilayered connection with the Armenian people.”

Beyond these letters, hundreds of Jews and Armenians in Israel held several protests during and after the 2020 Artsakh War. One of the protests was in front of the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, criticizing the sale of Israeli arms to Azerbaijan. Some of the protesters held models of drones with blood stains painted on them with the words ‘Made in Israel.’

Avidan Freedman, one of the founders of Yanshoof, an organization dedicated to stopping Israeli arms sales to human rights violators, published an article in The Times of Israel on August 13, 2023, titled: “The Artsakh humanitarian crisis is our responsibility. Here’s why.” He wrote: “Israel provided Azerbaijan with 69% of its arms in the period between 2016 and 2020. During the 2020 Artsakh War, a senior Israeli military source asserted that ‘Azerbaijan would not have been able to continue its operation at this level without our support.’” Freedman concluded: “the current humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh was enabled by Israeli support…. The emerging humanitarian crisis, Israel’s military support of Azerbaijan, and the Jewish people’s historic and moral connection to the Armenian people combine to create a clear moral responsibility. Israel must take a moral stance and call on Azerbaijan to immediately lift its blockade of the Lachin Corridor.”

To illustrate the depth of pro-Armenian sympathies among some Jews, I would like to quote Dr. Israel Charny, one of the signers of the above mentioned two letters. He is the Executive Director of the Jerusalem-based Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide and author of “Israel’s Failed Response to the Armenian Genocide.” In 2009, Charny and I were invited to speak at the UK Parliament. Since he could not attend due to illness, he submitted his speech in writing. Here is an excerpt: “No less than the arch fighter for peace in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Shimon Peres, now President of Israel, then serving as Israel’s Foreign Minister, twice went notably out of his way to insult the history and memory of the Armenian Genocide.”

In 2001, Charny sent a scathing letter to Peres: “You have gone beyond a moral boundary that no Jew should allow himself to trespass…. As a Jew and an Israeli, I am ashamed of the extent to which you have now entered into the range of actual denial of the Armenian Genocide, comparable to denials of the Holocaust.”

In response to an “especially insulting” denial by Peres in 2002, Dr. Charny sent him one of my editorials in The California Courier, with the following note: “I am enclosing with great concern for your attention an editorial in a leading US-Armenian newspaper calling on Armenia to expel the Israeli Ambassador [Rivka Cohen, after she denied the Armenian Genocide]. For your further information, the author of this editorial, who is the head of the United Armenian Fund in the US — comparable to our United Jewish Appeal — was for many years a delegate to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.”

Armenians should support their friends and criticize their opponents regardless of their nationality.