She is participating in the major demonstration of the Armenian diaspora in Brussels on Sunday to denounce Azerbaijan’s offensive on Nagorno-Karabakh.
Anahita Akopian, president of the Committee for Defense of the Armenian Cause denounces “the complicity of the European Union”, Sunday October 1 on franceinfo. More than 500 associations from 17 countries are calling for a major demonstration in Brussels on Sunday to warn of the massive exodus affecting the Armenian populations of Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan’s lightning offensive. Anahita Akopian will participate.
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franceinfo: Is this demonstration a way of denouncing the silence, the inaction of Europe in this exodus?
Anahita Akopia: Quite. I would even say more the complicity of the European Union. Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, considers Azerbaijan a reliable partner. From there, everything is said. She considers Azerbaijan as a reliable partner, even though she wanted to get rid of Vladimir Putin and gas imports. She wanted to get rid of a dictator. But today, we notice that it actually finances two dictators.
“Russian gas is supplied via pipelines from Azerbaijan. And so instead of financing Putin only, we finance Putin and Ilham Aliyev.”
Anahita Akopian, President of the Committee for Defense of the Armenian Causeat franceinfo
There were attempts at mediation on the part of Charles Michel, for example. Were these discussions for nothing?
These discussions, in reality, do not come to fruition. Ursula von der Leyen as Charles Michel [président du Conseil européen] follow, just like us, what is happening on site. These torture videos that we see today already existed in 2020. We systematically saw the destruction of Armenian heritage in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the erasure of Armenians from that Republic. It’s systematic. This is the definition of ethnic cleansing: erasing the presence of Armenians in the territory. And that’s what’s happening today.
France has a special relationship with Armenia. Do you have the impression that the French political class is mobilizing sufficiently?
All political parties are mobilizing for the Armenian question. The right, the left with Anne Hidalgo, Olivier Faure or Clémentine Autain. I salute them all. This is a question that has reached consensus among the French political class. Emmanuel Macron also tries to warn, he condemns. He called on the UN Security Council to meet twice. We salute, but that is not enough.
What do you expect today from the Quai d’Orsay and the Élysée?
Sanction Azerbaijan. We cannot sanction Putin’s Russia and not sanction Azerbaijan Aliyev. This is a double standard that is incomprehensible. It starts with the dismissal of the Azerbaijani ambassador to France. There also need to be financial sanctions. It is not possible today to have financial partnerships with Azerbaijan when we know that Azerbaijan systematically kills Armenians. The level of online hatred against Armenians today is unprecedented: there are calls for murder, rape, and the cutting up of children. We are here today, this is the reality that must be denounced.