We have all failed in our duty to humanity. There are many heads of state, international organizations, activists and citizens who have shouted loud and clear “never again” to wars, genocidal acts or ethnic cleansing.
And yet, in recent weeks, we have been able to turn a blind eye once again and witness the exodus to Armenia of almost all of Artsakh’s 120,000 Armenians (commonly known as of Nagorno-Karabakh) in just a few days.
Currently, there is a humanitarian crisis underway in Armenia. For a small developing republic, it is a big challenge to be able to accommodate all these families. Yes, of their own free will, the latter left their native and ancestral lands for fear of reprisals or massacre. How could they trust the Azerbaijani government, which deprived them of medicine and food since December 2022 and subsequently bombed them?
Since the towns and villages of Artsakh were emptied of their Armenian population, the vandalism and ransacking committed by Azeri soldiers have been widely broadcast on the social network X by journalists on the ground. Here, we see soldiers entering a house that belonged to Armenians to break furniture and dishes. There, we are witnessing the arbitrary arrest of politicians, humanitarian workers or any other person deemed threatening by Azerbaijan. Or the news that Dadik and Papik (an emblematic monument in Stepanakert) are threatened with destruction under the order of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev.
If we are not trying to erase all Armenian traces from this region, what is it, then? These images obviously recall the painful memory of the Armenian genocide of 1915, with the sole exception that in these modern times, the population takes the road to exile by car instead of walking day and night.
On October 2, a UN team made its report public after a day of observation. This mission, headed by the United Nations office in Azerbaijan and bringing together representatives of countries deemed non-hostile by Aliev, concluded, without any surprise, that Armenian infrastructure and cultural sites were not threatened and that it was necessary to work to restore trust between people. It is more than urgent to deploy an independent international mission capable of reaching objective conclusions and solutions, and not remotely guided by Baku.
Furthermore, did you know that last year, Azerbaijani gas exports to Europe increased by 30%? Since the start of the war in Ukraine and the absence of Russian gas, Azerbaijan has been one of the main gas suppliers to European countries. Their inaction, notably the absence of sanctions, can be explained by their energy dependence, even if the International Criminal Court, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch, to name just a few some have issued warnings and alerts of genocide or ethnic cleansing.
With these revenues, Azerbaijan is able to acquire state-of-the-art weapons, while Armenia does not have the same financial or military resources. It should also be mentioned that Turkey and Israel play an important role as allies of Azerbaijan, notably by supplying it with modern weapons or drones. In some ways, the Azerbaijani president enjoys a geopolitical advantage in the region, given the weakening of Russian influence.
And what does the future hold for the region? The self-proclaimed government of Artsakh may have signed an agreement affirming the dissolution of its organs, but one day the war in the Caucasus will start again.