Madame President,

As this is the first time I have taken the floor, allow me to congratulate you on your appointment.

We thank the secretariat for choosing to work on the impact of militarization on the rights of indigenous peoples. It’s clear to all of us that this is a very topical issue. On this issue, I’m going to draw on the basis of my report sent to the secretariat.

Last week’s meeting in Vilnius and the decision to reinforce Turkey’s military apparatus show that we are facing an open door to the bombing of Syria, Iraq and the occupied territories of Western Armenia, in other words, the conflagration of the whole of Asia Minor and the Middle East, resulting in the elimination of all indigenous populations.

It is therefore my duty to alert the international community, for example in defense of the indigenous Armenian population of Artsakh (Karabagh). I call on your Presidency, the Member States and the Special Rapporteur to take my request into consideration.

The Azeri blockade of the Armenian territory of Artsakh, which has lasted for over seven months, and now with its complete isolation following the 2020 war, has led to an extreme humanitarian crisis. 120,000 Armenians in Artsakh live every day under the threat of physical annihilation, loss of their homeland, ethnic cleansing, deprivation of their habitat and land. Every day, the situation worsens and the crisis threatens all human destinies under the armed siege of Azerbaijan, with no possibility of medical assistance.

Declarations by the international community to disengage Artsakh have had no practical consequences, and Azerbaijan continues unimpeded its anti-human and criminal policy of ethnic cleansing of Artsakh.

Today, it is a question of preventing the militarization from abroad of an indigenous territory that has been part of the state of Western Armenia since 1920 (evidence in support), with the programmed aim of continuing the genocide of indigenous Armenians in order to appropriate their sacred land.

All this must stop immediately, and Azerbaijan must withdraw from all the indigenous territories it occupies, in accordance with the recognition of our state and the United Nations Charter, which prohibits the use of military force and the annihilation of peoples, including indigenous peoples. 

No state should be able to kill indigenous populations with impunity.

Thank you Madame President

Arménag APRAHAMIAN

President of the National Council of Western Armenia