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Lemkin Institute

Armenians face genocide in Azerbaijan, former International Criminal Court prosecutor warns

Armenians face genocide in Azerbaijan, former International Criminal Court prosecutor warns


Trucks with humanitarian aid for Artsakh parked in a road towards the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, in Armenia, Friday, July 28, 2023. 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 UN Security Council to bring the matter before the ICC. A report by Luis Moreno Ocampo issued Tuesday said Azerbaijan’s blockade of the only road leading from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh seriously impedes food, medical supplies and other essentials to the region of about 120,000 people. (Hayk Manukyan/PHOTOLURE via AP)

A bridge and a checkpoint are seen on a road towards the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, in Armenia, Friday, July 28, 2023. 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 UN Security Council to bring the matter before the ICC. A report by Luis Moreno Ocampo issued Tuesday, Aug. 8 said Azerbaijan’s blockade of the only road leading from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh seriously impedes food, medical supplies and other essentials to the region of about 120,000 people. (Hayk Manukyan/PHOTOLURE via AP)

KORNIDZOR, Armenia (AP) — 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 U.N. Security Council to bring the matter before the international tribunal.


A report by Luis Moreno Ocampo issued Tuesday said Azerbaijan’s blockade of the only road leading from Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh seriously impedes food, medical supplies and other essentials to the region of about 120,000 people.


“There is a reasonable basis to believe that a genocide is being committed,” Ocampo’s report said, noting that a U.N. convention defines genocide as including “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,” the report said.


Nagorno-Karabakh is a region within Azerbaijan that came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by the Armenian military in separatist fight