AND IN OTHER NEWS: World Forced to React to Karabakh Genocide
My contribution: The blockade of the Lachin Corridor by the Azerbaijani security forces is a Genocide against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. #stopArmenianGenocide2023
-- Luis Moreno Ocampo (@MorenoOcampo1) August 8, 2023
The finding by a noted figure like Luis Moreno Ocampo, who served as the first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, that the current blockade by Azerbaijan against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh fits the definition of genocide, attracted important coverage in the mainstream media which had been lacking over the past eight months.
#Azerbaijan: Lift #Lachin corridor blockade and end humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, urge UN experts, alarmed at the ongoing dire humanitarian crisis in the region. <https://t.co/coiY5ztbp9> pic.twitter.com/JCtgzscrc3
-- UN Special Procedures (@UN_SPExperts) August 7, 2023
Independent human rights experts @MichaelFakhri, F. Shaheed, @IE_OlderPersons & @SR_Disability, express alarm over the ongoing blockade of the #Lachin corridor by #Azerbaijan which has led to a dire humanitarian crisis in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.<https://t.co/wdDLAyi5Dn> pic.twitter.com/0BBErhSGDd
-- United Nations Geneva (@UNGeneva) August 9, 2023
The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is so dire, that international bodies have also been unable to ignore it any longer. Prior to the UN Security Council discussing the issue on Wednesday, August 16, various UN bodies tweeted warnings about what is going on.
Armenians face genocide in Azerbaijan, former International Criminal Court prosecutor warns | AP News <https://t.co/9RxYFhXB93>
-- Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 9, 2023
An early one to pick up the story afterwards was CNN’s Jake Tapper, who has tweeted about US recognition of the Armenian Genocide in recent years as well.
A former International Criminal Court chief prosecutor has said there is “reasonable basis to believe that genocide is being committed against Armenians” in the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh <https://t.co/YzHjp3BaeR>
-- CNN (@CNN) August 12, 2023
CNN went on to publish an article citing Ocampo’s finding.
I also spoke to the British MP @timloughton who criticised the “distinct lack of a robust response” from the UK, highlighting that other countries, like France and the US, have publicly condemned Azerbaijan over the blockade.
-- Jessie Williams (@JessieWill5) August 16, 2023
The Telegraph’s coverage had the headline “it is like a concentration camp” to describe the conditions Armenians are enduring in Nagorno-Karabakh, and quoted a member of UK Parliament from the ruling Conservative Party criticizing the UK’s lack of response to it.
Aliyev should grasp that starving the Armenians of Karabakh will get him nothing, the Editorial Board writes.
Lifting the Lachin corridor blockade can help negotiations progress and avert yet another war. <https://t.co/K5GmlK8j7I>
-- Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) August 18, 2023
The Washington Post has published three articles in quick succession about the Lachin crisis and humanitarian situation, starting with an opinion by its associate editor David Ignatius, followed by the one above issued on behalf of the Post’s editorial board with a warning to Aliyev, and the analysis below:
Rather than lift its blockade of the Lachin Corridor and end the humanitarian crisis that it has created in ethnic Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azerbaijani government is in denial mode, pretending that there isn't a crisis. <https://t.co/dZc01k2Lb2>
-- Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) August 18, 2023
The Post’s article was shared by Ken Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, who has a large following on Twitter.
Azerbaijani officials exhibit an alarming level of confidence and impunity, going so far as to openly reveal their intentions. In a recent interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, Elchin Amirbayov, the representative for Special Assignments of the President of the Republic… pic.twitter.com/C80EsfFlPo
-- Ruben Vardanyan (@RubenVardanyan_) August 10, 2023
Despite Azerbaijan’s responsibility to keep the Lachin corridor open, it points to an alternative “Aghdam Road” through which humanitarian aid could also be brought into the region. However this aid would be coming through Azerbaijan, and Armenians have no trust in what goods they might be receiving, and in addition it doesn’t solve the myriad of issues regarding Armenians trapped due to the closed Lachin border, since Armenians are forbidden from entering Azerbaijan. As Ruben Vardanyan points out, Azerbaijan is using starvation as a bargaining chip against Armenians in order to get out of its past agreements with them and subjugate them instead.
nagorno-karabakh crisis:
decades of war
now 120,000 ppl in danger of starvation
needs our attention
<https://t.co/Zj4Dd3lzYC>@gzeromedia pic.twitter.com/esrQIbAOe9
-- ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) August 14, 2023
Noted political scientist Ian Bremmer also tweeted a video describing why the world needs to take notice of the danger facing Nagorno-Karabakh.
"Is #NagornoKarabakh the New Darfur?"<https://t.co/yBzoIvd4FC>
- US does NOT accept blanket #Azerbaijan sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh
- @MorenoOcampo1 #genocide opinion important
- Azerbaijan's acceptance of #GenocideConvention makes [@ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
-- Michael Rubin (@mrubin1971) August 10, 2023
Commentator Michael Rubin pointed out President Aliyev’s own exposure to prosecution due to his actions against Nagorno-Karabakh.
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. <https://t.co/z5nu7GIeP3>
-- Jacobin (@jacobin) August 8, 2023
Jacobin, a leading voice on political and social issues, also had something to say.
Pro-Azerbaijan trolls have started abusing me online simply for calling for an end to the blockade of the Lachin corridor and #NagornoKarabakh. For the record, I am not or , I just believe in human rights & humanitarianism. And I’ll keep tweeting <https://t.co/khOoawjb2K>
-- Simon Adams (@SAdamsR2P) August 7, 2023
Many who speak however have been at the receiving end of the Azerbaijani troll army and condemnation from Azerbaijani officials. The harassment is intended to make the personal cost of speaking out for the lives of Armenians too high, and in fact it has led to some in the press to quietly refuse to report on Armenian-Azerbaijani issues because of backlash they’d receive.
Armenia's "propaganda machine" is so powerful it has "deceived" everyone from Lithuania's Foreign Minister to a Forbes journalist, and even UN experts pic.twitter.com/m621YCLHrQ
-- Hov Nazaretyan (@HovhanNaz) August 10, 2023
While attacks from Azerbaijani officials are nothing new, what we are seeing lately is those at the highest levels aren’t beneath blatantly condemning their counterparts on Twitter rather than discussing matters behind closed doors. Officials from third countries like the Foreign Minister of Lithuania have found themselves chided for being “deceived” by Armenians, not to mention the all-out field day against President Macron of France and all things French. Since the only country which is on record of completely backing Azerbaijan’s approach against Nagorno-Karabakh has been Turkey, the messaging coming out of Baku is that world bodies, leading nations, and a multitude of policy-makers have all been “tricked” by Armenians..
In our recent call for "solidarity with Karabakh/Artsakh against total war, blockade and hegemony" we are addressing following issues:
1)What is going on in Karabakh/Artsakh?
2)What is hegemony and why AZE state needs it?
3)It is time for solidarity!<https://t.co/meMsPJs2kV>
-- Feminist Peace Collective (@FemPeace) August 10, 2023
Despite the inundation of anti-Armenian messaging within Azerbaijan, not everyone is taken in by it. This brave message of radical solidarity was issued by the “Feminist Peace Collective”, which includes some Azerbaijani members still inside the country. It draws a parallel between the fake “eco-protestors” who were used to start the blockade and the protesters in the Azerbaijani village of Soyudlu who were beaten protesting mining in their village, saying “as a result, it can be said that neither the welfare of the Armenian nor the Azerbaijani population is of interest to the ruling class.” It closes with: “we demand the immediate opening of the Lachin/Berdzor corridor, the delivery of necessary food products to the Armenians of Karabakh/Artsakh, the reunification of families that have been isolated for eight months, and the creation of conditions for the immediate provision of all necessary medical assistance to Armenians in need!”
#EUMA daily monitors military & security situation from 4⃣ operating bases patrolling alongside -border area.
Based on information on the ground, we see no unusual military movement or buildup, especially at the entrance to Lachin corridor
We keep patrolling the areas
-- European Union Mission in Armenia (@EUmARMENIA) August 14, 2023
Over the past week, the EU monitoring mission in Armenia has come under great scrutiny. This tweet from August 14 reflected how it can be most useful, dispelling the constant accusations coming from Azerbaijan against Armenia in order to create grounds for another invasion. Hardly a day goes by without Azerbaijan claiming it has been attacked, to which, the Armenian Ministry of Defense backed up by the EU, responded, this does not correspond to reality.
CORRECTING STATEMENT:
We confirm that #EUMA patrol has been present to the shooting incident in our area of responsibility.
No #EUMA member was harmed.
-- European Union Mission in Armenia (@EUmARMENIA) August 15, 2023
However, the very next day, the mission severely risked its credibility after the Armenian Ministry of Defense announced that the EU mission monitoring Armenia’s borderlands had come under fire from Azerbaijan. The mission did not just refute the report, but even photoshopped a “FALSE” stamp over the initial tweet, mirroring CivilNet’s own approach to fact checking social media tweets, an aggressive approach the monitors had never used before. What came next was even more shocking: within an hour a video by an EU monitor, recorded in a bunker on the border, stating “they’re shooting at us”. In light of this revelation, the monitoring mission’s social media, which is run out of Armenia, tweeted the above “correction”, with a vaguely worded statement walking back the initial claim the Armenian Ministry of Defense had lied. You can read CivilNet’s explainer for a further breakdown of what happened and its fallout.
If you're on the lookout for a mesmerising destination at the crossroads of East and West, you will be fascinated by #Azerbaijan
Let's delve into the wonders of this enchanting country!
Lukas Bischoff/Shutterstock pic.twitter.com/o28hwaQL5S
-- Lawrence Meredith (@LMeredithEU) August 10, 2023
A lot of anger was also directed at the EU Commission’s Director for the Eastern Neighborhood Lawrence Meredith, as at the height of the warnings about genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh, he published a very fluffy thread about the wonders of visiting Azerbaijan. He also published one last month about visiting Armenia, which is also an EU Eastern Neighborhood partner, so this was likely part of a series and not specific promotion for Azerbaijan alone, however the timing couldn’t have looked worse. In addition, some criticized Meredith’s hypocrisy in condemning Belarus for not having free and fair elections, while promoting Azerbaijan.
“People are happy and have very tasty cookies.”
Azerbaijani diplomacy at its finest. pic.twitter.com/yc9cKky5p2
-- Alex Galitsky (@algalitsky) August 16, 2023
The UN Security Council discussed the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh on August 16, which resulted in an extremely viral moment. In the days that followed, Armenian social media couldn’t stop memeing about the Azerbaijan ambassador Yashar Aliyev’s response to the august body, after being told time and again Azerbaijan must open the Lachin corridor. Aliyev maintained that the allegations of a humanitarian disaster are completely unfounded because there are videos on social media from there in which “people are happy” at celebrations with “very tasty cookies”. Azerbaijani voices on social media largely celebrated the farce as having completely shut down Armenia’s case, as evidence by the fact no UN resolution on the matter was passed, even though there was no intention of putting forward a resolution that day.
So basically, there is no difference between Azerbaijan's representative to the UN and their propagandists on Twitter. He brought screenshots of food to the Security Council meeting to prove there is no humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh
-- Tigran Grigoryan (@Tigartsakh) August 16, 2023
The most ridiculous part of this whole approach to refuting the blockade is that there have been a number of Azerbaijani tweeters, in particular one known as @KonulikShahin who is a self-described Freddie Mercury fan living in Turkey, who has been trawling through Stepanakert-based social media such as its top restaurants flagging any time a photo of a piece or fruit or drink has appeared as a means of refuting the claims of blockade. The problems with this approach are manifold, for example anybody can tag a photo as being in Stepanakert whether it is or not, there is no way to know whether the photos were newly taken or months old, and of course that social media does not reflect real life or the majority of peoples’ experiences. It in fact mirrors Russian propaganda of sharing glamorous photos from Ukraine in order to deny there is any suffering there because of the invasion. While Armenians on social media condemned and eventually learned to ignore Konulik’s denialism, to see this absurdity rise to the level of the UN was a bit of a shock.
I have held several discussions with Azerbaijanis from various backgrounds in the past 3 weeks about the situation in Karabakh. The overwhelming majority of them don't believe that there is a blockade. Some of those are even the ones who were against the war (nowarçı) in 2020.
-- Cavid Ağa (@cavidaga) August 20, 2023
According to this thread from Cavid Aga, this hostility towards the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh is not restricted to social media. He notes that, despite the lip service given to “reintegration of the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians”, most Azerbaijanis he has spoken with don’t care about them at all and would rather see them leave for good. They generally see the humanitarian crisis as a self-inflicted one, a hunger strike of sorts, thanks to the successful propaganda surrounding the Aghdam road, even though no such aid has ever materialized there.
I want to ask the kindest* : why don't you let the girl's body be brought and buried in Artsakh, why do you hurt the girl's relatives more, why do you call the girl's relatives to offer condolences and force them to say that the girl was born in and not in Artsakh? <https://t.co/jsgU8fDkaN> pic.twitter.com/4cpabzAEk8
-- Ani Balayan (@dinjkac) August 19, 2023
As the famous saying goes, “if you didn’t laugh, you’d cry”, and the levity over the “tasty cookies” was a needed respite from the daily horrors occurring in Nagorno-Karabakh, every single one intended by Azerbaijan to create as much suffering and misery as possible. The latest stems from a separate horrific tragedy, a bus collision in Armenia which killed 11. One of the victims, Helen Dadayan, was from Nagorno-Karabakh where her family lives and intends to bring her body back for burial. However, despite its claims that no such blockade exists, Azerbaijan has blocked her body from being sent to her family.
No, this is not normal. This should never have happened in the first place. And not a single crime committed by Armenia can be used to justify this gruesome situation. <https://t.co/2sqQ7CjZdI>
-- Shujaat Ahmadzada (@S_Ahmadzada) August 19, 2023
Such a blatant display of inhumanity has received criticism from even some of Baku’s think-tankers, such as Shujaat Ahmadzada of the Topchubashov Center. Though Azerbaijan often speaks of Armenians having the same rights and guarantees as any other Azerbaijani citizen – not reassuring – it is clear Armenians are enemies and even grieving families are made to suffer
Since the Holocaust, scholars and laypeople alike have questioned how such a horrific genocide could have happened. What few realize is that just over two decades earlier, something eerily similar already had.
Although it remains widely overlooked and in some cases… pic.twitter.com/cdsgEjHwX1
-- Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) August 11, 2023
Finally, it is worth noting that one of the largest history-related accounts on Twitter recently tweeted about the Armenian Genocide of 1915, receiving over 1.5 million views. The significance of this post is now more relevant than ever.
The post AND IN OTHER NEWS: World Forced to React to Karabakh Genocide appeared first on CIVILNET.
#inothernews #reportsinenglish #karabakhgenocide #kennethroth #unitednationssecuritycouncil
AND IN OTHER NEWS: World Forced to React to Karabakh Genocide - CIVILNET
The finding by a noted figure like Luis Moreno Ocampo, who served as the first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, that the current blockade by Azerbaijan against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh fits the definition of genocide, attracted important coverage in the mainstream media which had been lacking over the past eight months. The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is so dire, that international bodies have also been unable to ignore it any longer. Prior to the UN Security Council discussing the issue on Wednesday, August 16, various UN bodies tweeted warnings about what is going on. An early one to pick […]
