After a lightning offensive by Azeri forces in September, almost the entire Armenian population fled this independence territory, landlocked in Azerbaijan. Several observers denounce a “genocide” and an “ethnic cleansing” in progress. However, jurists are not unanimous on this qualification.
Empty buildings, deserted streets, a city frozen in silence… In a few days, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, Stepanakert, was emptied of its inhabitants. After thirty years of conflict with Azerbaijan, the independent territory of the Caucasus self-dissolved. Nearly 100,000 inhabitants, i.e. almost the entire population of the region, fled to Armenia, according to Armenian authorities.
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On several occasions, the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinian, accused Baku of having carried out a “ethnic cleansing” in the Armenian-majority enclave. Earlier this year, he had already claimed that Azerbaijan was preparing a “genocide of the people of [Haut-Karabakh]“. Qualifications taken up by representatives and members of the Armenian community, as well as by international observers. But do these qualifiers reflect the situation on site?
“Ethnic cleansing”, a notion without legal reality
“We can use a thousand words, but it is obvious that this is ethnic cleansing”estimated on franceinfo Hasmik Tolmajian, Ambassador of Armenia to France. “Nagorno-Karabakh has just been emptied of all its inhabitants in a few days (…) If that isn’t ethnic cleansing, I don’t know what it is,” also denounced the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, on RTL. “This is the definition of ethnic cleansing: erasing the presence of Armenians in this territory. And this is what is happening today”said Anahita Akopian, president of the Committee for Defense of the Armenian Cause.
In international law, however, the term “ethnic cleansing” is not recognized as a crime and has no precise definition, recalls the UN. The expression appeared in the 1990s, during the conflict in former Yugoslavia, and probably comes from a literal translation from Serbo-Croatian “etničko čišćenje”, specify the United Nations. The acts which could be qualified as such are therefore not precisely defined. In 1994, however, a United Nations commission of experts on the former Yugoslavia ruled in a report* that “ethnic cleansing” was “a deliberate policy designed by an ethnic or religious group aimed at eliminating, through the use of violence and terror, civilian populations belonging to a distinct ethnic or religious community from certain geographic areas.”
The term is not used by jurists to have acts recognized in court. “Ethnic cleansing is a generic term that comes from everyday language,” observes for franceinfo Yann Jurovics, lecturer in international law at Paris-Saclay University, former jurist for the international tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. His colleague Marjorie Beulay, lecturer in public law at the University of Picardie-Jules Verne, confirms this analysis.
But, even without legal transcription, this expression describes a reality. “Ethnic cleansing involves making a group invisible”she notes. In the case of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, invisibility takes for example the form of destruction of Armenian heritage, such as cemeteries, memorial monuments, recalls The Guardian. “The situation raises fears that those who remain [au Haut-Karabakh] may be forced to be assimilated, which is part of ethnic cleansing. Taken to its extreme, the latter can lead to genocide. continues Marjorie Beulay.
A “genocide” already characterized by certain jurists…
The word “genocide” appeared at the end of the Second World War and quickly entered the vocabulary of international law, recalls the UN. The crime of genocide was created in 1948 and defined in the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Article II of this treaty states that genocide is characterized when acts are committed “with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”. These acts include: murder, forced transfer of children or subjection to living conditions leading to the partial or even total disappearance of a population.
In February, the International Court of Justice, which deals with disputes between states, declared* that the lives of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh were in danger due to the blockage of the Lachin corridor since the end of 2022. This land strip connects the independence territory to Armenia, and allows the circulation of food and health equipment. In a report* published at the beginning of August, the former prosecutor general of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno Ocampo, requested by Armenia, also estimated that a “genocide was underway” against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh due to this blockade. He accused Azeri President Ilham Aliyev of causing famine in the enclave. On September 18, Baku, however, authorized the arrival of humanitarian aid in the corridor, after an agreement with the separatists of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“As in 1917 during the Armenian genocide, the main weapon is hunger. It is not necessary that there be people dying of hunger for us to be able to speak of genocide. There must be intend to create conditions that will lead to this result.”
Luis Moreno Ocampo, former prosecutor general of the International Criminal Courtto “Liberation”
At the end of August, former United Nations expert on genocide, Juan Méndez, alerted the world organization to the risks of genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh. He also mentioned the blockage since the end of 2022 of the Lachin corridor. “The risk of genocide was clearly present and is still not mitigated,” reports the specialist to franceinfo. It’s not because they are now safe from attack [après leur exode vers l’Arménie] that we can say that the genocide did not take place or will not take place.”
In addition, for several years, Azeri leaders have not hidden their intention to eliminate the Armenians. “Our goal is the complete elimination of the Armenians”declared Hajibala Abutalybov*, former mayor of Baku, in 2005. In 2013, a former advisor to Ilham Aliyev, compared Armenia to a “cancerous tumor” of the Caucasus and assured that his disappearance was “inevitable”. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev himself described the Armenians as “barbarians and vandals” who would be infected by “virus” for which they should “to be treated”. Following Baku’s 2020 war against the breakaway territory, the Azerbaijani government issued a commemorative stamp depicting a man in a protective suit attempting to “disinfect” Nagorno-Karabakh.
… but which does not correspond to the current situation for others
In response to Luis Moreno Ocampo’s conclusions, Azerbaijan sought the expertise of Briton Rodney Dixon, a lawyer specializing in international law and human rights. In his conclusions*the expert, who claims to have worked completely independently, argues that “nothing, in the opinion of Luis Moreno Ocampo, allows us to assert that a genocide is currently being perpetrated in Nagorno-Karabakh”. The words of the former ICC prosecutor constitute, in his opinion, “a manifestly unfounded allegation.
Regarding the former blockade of the Lachin corridor, Rodney Dixon notes “the offer of alternatives” from Azerbaijan “for the supply of the population. He mentions the road between Aghdam (Azerbaijan) and Stepanakert, and states that “it is the illegal and unrecognized entity of Nagorno-Karabakh which refused to take this route”, as proposed by American diplomacy. The lawyer continues by assuring that between December 2022 and August 2023, the Red Cross was still able to evacuate “more than 700 people” via the Lachin corridor, distribute “around 10,000 food and hygiene packages” And “900 tons of medical supplies”, despite the blockade. An assessment established by the humanitarian organization itself.
Faced with these different observations, opinions differ on the use of the term “genocide”. “I understand the symbolic necessity of using it, to convey a message, to make people react and alert them to a situation, underlines Marjorie Beulay. But from a legal point of view, the notion of genocide seems difficult to establish.”
“We will have to have the elements, to determine this desire for physical and biological destruction of the group.”
Marjorie Beulay, lecturer in public lawat franceinfo
The researcher is not sure that the accusation of “genocide” holds up considering the blockade of Lachin alone. “Is it organized to destroy a group biologically and physically, or to make it give in and leave the territory?”, she asks herself. In general, judges this expert, the facts known at this stage on Nagorno-Karabakh are closer “exactions, crimes against humanity and genocide”. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court*in its article 7, defines crimes against humanity as acts such as murder, deportations, acts of torture or rape, among other crimes, “committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack launched against any civilian population and with knowledge of this attack”.
For Yann Jurovics, the current particularity of Nagorno-Karabakh is the fact that “the borders are open”. “We are not preventing departure, it is the gap between a policy of biological destruction and a policy of persecution”, develops the specialist, who highlights the lack of information on what is really happening in this area. But “If the Armenian populations flee because they are afraid of something founded, then it is rather a criminal policy against humanity.” he insists. Attacks could also, “case by case”, be qualified as war crimes.
The one-day UN mission to Nagorno-Karabakh, which arrived on Sunday, did not observe destruction or collect testimony of violence against civilians since the ceasefire. However, she noted “destructions” in Aghdam, territory regained by Azerbaijan in 2020. “NOT“My colleagues were struck by the suddenness with which the local population fled,” underlined the UN spokesperson. In any case, insists Juan Méndez, “it is the responsibility of the international community to do something to prevent genocide, whether genocide has already occurred or may occur.”
*Links followed by an asterisk are to PDF documents.