Says U.S., EU and Russia Have Responsibility and Means to Stop Genocide

In a wide-ranging report publicized on Tuesday, leading international legal expert and the former lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, said there is an ongoing genocide being committed against 120,000 Armenian living in Artsakh. He also said that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s actions signal that he has “genocidal intentions.”

Moreno Ocampo compiled the detailed report in response to a request from Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan, who late last month appealed to the legal expert to provide his assessment on the matter.

His conclusions were based on assessing the current conditions in Artsakh as well as international legal precedents that confirm that “‘deprivation of food, medical care, shelter or clothing’ constitute Genocide within the meaning of Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention.”

Moreno Ocampo also raises the alarm of the dire situation and said that the the United States, the European Union and Russia have the ability and responsibility to take concrete steps to prevent the annihilation of Armenians in Artsakh.

“Is it possible to assist European, Russian and US leaders to reach a joint position to stop the ongoing Armenian Genocide?” Moreno Ocampo asked.

“If they could agree, the food will reach the Armenians within one day,” he concluded, saying that “the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh is an opportunity for the international community to develop an innovative and harmonious solution to prevent Genocide.”

“My contribution is to explain why it should be considered a Genocide against the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh under Article II, (c) of the Genocide Convention: ‘Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction,’” said Moreno Ocampo.

“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,” he explained.

“In many respects, the starvation of the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh represents the archetype of genocide through the imposition of conditions of life designed to bring about a group’s destruction,” Moreno Ocampo concluded.

“There is reasonable basis to believe that President Aliyev has Genocidal intentions: he has knowingly, willingly and voluntarily blockaded the Lachin Corridor even after having been placed on notice regarding the consequences of his actions by the ICJ’s provisional orders,” said Moreno Ocampo.

“President Aliyev’s public statements affirming that the blockade was the consequence of people smuggling minerals and i-phones through the Lachin Corridor is a diversion,” Moreno Ocampo said referring to the Azerbaijan’s reasoning to completely shut down the Lachin Corridor last month. “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.”

“In 2020, when President Aliyev accepted the Russian peacekeepers and agreed to guarantee a free corridor between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, he implicitly recognized the Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto autonomy,” the legal expert explained.

He added that Aliyev should be investigated for Genocide “because he is at the top of the state apparatus and controls decisions politically, militarily and diplomatically. He’s the mastermind behind the operations of the Genocide.”

In his report, Moreno Ocampo said that he reached out to Aliyev for comment, but did not receive one. Instead the legal expert referenced the Azerbaijani leader’s responses to a recent Euronews interview, in which not only is Aliyev admitting to the deliberate starving the population of Artsakh, but is also threatening Armenia.

Aliyev told Euronews that geopolitical changes resulting from the Ukraine conflict were in his favor and posed the question: “Who will protect Armenia?”

“This is akin to Hitler’s statement that he made in August of 1939, when he said, ‘who remembers now the extermination of the Armenians?,’” Moreno Ocampo said in his report adding that Aliyev ended his interview with a threat to Armenians: “They should understand that the situation where they are today would not change in their favor if they continue to ignore us if they continue to behave that we do not exist.”