The famous American magazine Newsweek published an article by Artak Beglaryan, former human rights defender of Artsakh.
A part is presented below.
“In recent years, the dictatorial regime in Baku, led by Ilham Aliyev, committed genocide against the native Armenians of Artsakh.
By Luis Moreno Ocampo, the first Prosecutor General of the International Criminal Court, and Juan Mendes, the first UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide,” the article states.
In addition to the destruction of many Armenian and Christian monuments, Baku’s genocidal policy has led to the forced displacement of nearly 150,000 Armenians from our ancient homeland. It is emphasized that for years Freedom House classified Baku as a “not free” country with political rights and one of the world’s worst civil liberties indicators both due to internal violations and crimes committed against Armenians.
After the end of the first stage of the genocide in 2020, the authorities of Baku imposed a blockade on the Armenians of Artsakh in December 2022.
As documented by Amnesty International, the blockade has led to severe shortages of essential food, medicine and fuel. Despite the orders of the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) on February 22 and July 6, 2023, which required the lifting of the blockade on Baku,
The Aliyev regime not only continued the blockade, but launched an aggression in September that led to the forced displacement of the entire population.
Later, on November 17, 2023, the ICC passed a new decree that recognized the forced displacement and obliged Baku to ensure the safe return of the people of Artsakh, the protection of cultural and religious heritage, and a number of other steps.
In addition, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) expressed concern about the spread of hate speech against Armenians in Baku. A recent ECRI report highlighted current issues related to racism and intolerance.
Freedom House released a report literally days ago stating that “Baku’s documented actions meet the criteria of ethnic cleansing as understood in the context of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia: through extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and imprisonments, restrictions on access to food and life-sustaining medicines, forced evictions, forced displacement of populations and targeted destruction of property.”
To be continued…