Blockaded 120,000 Armenians face mass-starvation...


CORRESPONDENCE:
Letter emailed to Amy Goodman: August 16, 2023
Follow up to this Open Letter, after the news coverage on Democracy Now!: August 17, 2023

August 12, 2023

Dear Ms. Amy Goodman,

As you know, 120,000 Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, who have been living under a blockade by Azerbaijan since December 12, 2022, are currently in grave danger of mass starvation. 

In the dead of a cold winter, Nagorno-Karabakh's gas and electricity from Armenia were cut off. Eight months have gone by and Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh continue to live in isolation, with crucial shortages of food, water, medicine, hygiene items, gas and electricity supplies. The only road that connects Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh has been blocked by the Azeris, initially under the guise of eco-protests, and now blatant permanent military posts.

Pregnant women are losing their unborn children and have to walk for miles to reach a hospital. Children are suffering from malnutrition and their schools have closed down. Mothers have no access to baby food. The sick and the disabled are unable to receive the crucial care that they need. There is no medicine. The majority have lost their jobs and sources of income. Baku’s ruling regime’s snipers target farmers when they try to cultivate their land, and there is no fuel for them to transport what little harvest there is to the city. Bread is distributed in rationed breadlines. David Ignatius writes in the Washington Post, “U.S. officials believe that Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh are managing to survive only because of backyard gardens and other home-produced food. They fear that within two months, as winter approaches, the population could face starvation.”

On January 19, 2023, over one month after the blockade, Democracy Now! had its one and only coverage of this humanitarian crisis to this date. During that interview, the EVN journalist, Roubina Margossian, stated that the blockade is “a humanitarian crisis that’s on the verge of becoming a man-made catastrophe.” She was right, but her words were forgotten by this news outlet. 

The following is a summary of some of the events that Democracy Now! has ignored:

February 1, 2023: International Association of Genocide Scholars Executive and Advisory Boards issued a statement strongly condemning and calling on the lifting of the blockade and warned of the risk of the genocide of the indigenous Armenian population by Baku’s dictator.

February 9, 2023: Amnesty International called for the lifting of the blockade.

February 21, 2023: more news from Human Rights Watch regarding the blockade.

February 22, 2023: International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued this binding order:

“The Republic of Azerbaijan shall, pending the final decision in the case and in accordance with its obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles, and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.”

February 24: Another warning was issued by Genocide Watch.

April 23, 2023: Azerbaijan finally dropped the pretense with state-employed “eco-activists” who had blocked the road and instead set up an illegal military checkpoint at the Lachin Corridor, ignoring the November 9, 2020 peace agreement terms. 

Ongoing warnings by the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention.

June 15, 2023: “After committing a deliberate provocation near the Hakari bridge, the Azerbaijani side completely blocked all humanitarian transport of persons and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions”. No food or medicine have entered Artsakh since June 15. At a later date, ICRC was able to resume the transport of critically ill patients to Armenia.

July 11, 2023: “The Tatoyan Foundation Center for Law & Justice and U.S.-based law firm Kerkonian Dajani LLP filed a class action lawsuit on July 11 against Mohammad Reza Vaziri, president and chief executive officer of Anglo Asian Mining PLC. […] The Complaint alleges that Defendant Vaziri aided and abetted violations of the U.S. Torture Victims Protection Act and the false imprisonment of Artsakh Armenians in an effort to secure access and exploit precious metal deposits in Artsakh, including gold and copper. […] The federal pleading alleges Defendant Vaziri’s role in “lobbying foreign governments and international institutions to justify, whitewash, and/or divert attention away from the Blockade until Defendant Vaziri, his agents and/or his collaborators were granted access to the [Nagorno-Karabakh] Mines.”

July 20, 2023: Armenian youth of Stepanakert, Artsakh, sent an SOS message for aerial viewing.

July 24, 2023: More mass rallies in Yerevan, Armenia, and Stepanakert, Artsakh, against the blockade.

July 26 to the present: 19 trucks loaded with 400 tons of humanitarian aid from Armenia have been stranded at the Lachin Corridor since July 26th.

July 29, 2023: Azeri border guards at the illegal checkpoint in Lachin Corridor, kidnapped a 68-year-old Armenian man with serious health issues, from the ICRC (Red Cross) ambulance, fabricating charges against him for a mock trial in Baku. 

August 2, 2023: UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued his concern regarding the “challenges to freedom of movement” along the Lachin Corridor: It was stated that “[h]e is particularly concerned about reports of the deteriorating humanitarian situation on the ground and calls for urgent steps to facilitate access for the delivery of humanitarian assistance to people in need.”

August 7, 2023: Former International Criminal Court prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, issued a report, warning that the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh is Genocide. He writes:

<<The blockade of the Lachin Corridor by the Azerbaijani security forces impeding access to any food, medical supplies, and other essentials should be considered a Genocide under Article II, (c) of the Genocide Convention: “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.” There are no crematories, and there are no machete attacks. Starvation is the invisible Genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks.>>

In an interview on Civilnet, Mr. Ocampo explains that Baku is using one of the main weapons of genocide by starvation that was used against Armenians by Turkey (then the Ottoman Empire) in 1915. Ocampo also emphasizes that calling this a political or humanitarian “crisis” is “reducing the problem”, as what is actually happening is genocide. Ocampo questions the possibility of Armenians living under a person who is trying to commit genocide against them. He also emphasizes that in the US, Anthony Blinken has a crucial role in the decision to call this a genocide. The report can also be downloaded here…

August 7, 2023: “UN experts urge Azerbaijan to lift Lachin corridor blockade and end humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh”:

“The experts urged authorities in Azerbaijan to immediately restore the free and secure movement of persons, vehicles, and cargo moving along the Lachin corridor in both directions, in accordance with the ceasefire agreement of November 2020”. They further stated, "We urge the Government of Azerbaijan to uphold its international obligations to respect and protect human rights, including the right to food, health, education, and life.”

August 9, 2023: Using a big rig, a large group of protesters blocked part of the 134 Freeway in Glendale, California, creating massive traffic backup, in order to bring attention to the humanitarian crisis in Artsakh. 

The following recent Newsweek Opinion piece has many links for further information: “Armenians Are Once Again Facing Genocide. The Time To Act Is Now”. You can also find several recent reports about the use of starvation “as a means of genocide”, all issued after Ocampo’s report, on the mainstream media and other news outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, Washington Times, AP News, Just Security, Open Democracy, Forbes (by Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab), Jacobin: “The West is indifferent to Azeri aggression in Armenia because Azerbaijan’s strategic significance makes it an essential partner for Western energy security, leaving democratic Armenia with limited support in its time of need.” Times of Israel: “The Artsakh humanitarian crisis is our responsibility. Here’s why” <<The world’s willingness to ignore the Armenian genocide encouraged the Nazis that their Final Solution for the Jewish problem would encounter the same apathy. Ever since, the Armenians maintain an existential anxiety that we can understand well, along with a loathing of international inaction. […] During the war in 2020, a senior Israeli military source asserted that “Azerbaijan would not have been able to continue its operation at this level without our support”>>

August 11, 2023: The government of Armenia has requested the intervention of the UN Security Council.

Since the end of Azerbaijan’s 2020 invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), Azerbaijan has also made multiple incursions into the borders of the Republic of Armenia and its military currently occupies over 215 square kilometers of Armenian territory. Baku’s dictatorial regime has stated that after Karabakh, Azerbaijan will force its will on the Republic of Armenia. The following is a sampling of Azerbaijan’s state media referring to the Republic of Armenia as “Western Azerbaijan”. See here…,  here…, and here…. In addition, Armenian civilians and POWs are still kept in Baku prisons, despite the terms of the November 9, 2020 peace agreement.

In conclusion: Dear Amy Goodman, if Democracy Now! can turn a blind eye to this humanitarian catastrophe, or to use the correct term, “GENOCIDE”, as described by Mr. Ocampo, which involves the imprisonment and physical and psychological torture of 120,000 Armenians, 30,000 of them children, what should one expect of the mainstream media? Why have you kept silent for nearly 7 months? We deserve an explanation.



NEWS UPDATES:
(also see CORRESPONDENCE on top of this page)

August 13, 2023: "UN to hold emergency meeting on Azerbaijan’s blockade of road from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh" (AP News): "Last week, the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warned that Azerbaijan is preparing genocide against ethnic Armenians in its Nagorno-Karabakh region and called for the Security Council to bring the matter before the international tribunal."

August 15, 2023: Ahead of Wednesday’s UN emergency meeting, The EU Observer Mission in Armenia was targeted by Azerbaijani units. After first rejecting the statement made by Armenia's MOD, the EUMA corrected its statement. Looking back, on June 22, 2023, Azerbaijan's Ambassador to the EU publicly threatened targeting the EUMA, a civilian group whose mission is to objectively observe the borders of the Republic of Armenia, in order to reduce the possibility of more Azeri incursions. Azerbaijan has refused to allow the EUMA within its own borders. Baku is emboldened by The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, who considers Azerbaijan as a "crucial" and "reliable" energy supplier. Azerbaijan diverts gas from Russia and sells it to the EU for higher prices.

SIGNED BY: