Brussels, 19 September 2024 – Following Azerbaijan’s large-scale war in 2020, during which Azerbaijan invaded and occupied a significant part of Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh, in blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement signed in November 2020, Azerbaijan launched another military offensive exactly one year ago today, on 19 September 2023. This came after a nine-month blockade that imposed starvation on the indigenous Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh.
As bombs targeted residential neighborhoods and schools, where children were in class, people sought refuge in shelters. Entire villages fled the military attacks, while Azerbaijani troops blocked roads between villages, preventing the people of Artsakh from collecting their dead. Hundreds of people died in a fuel depot explosion as they were filling their petrol cans to evacuate their families.
Thus, in September 2023 Azerbaijan carried out an ethnic cleansing, leaving Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh under Azerbaijani control and forcibly displacing the entire indigenous Armenian population of 150,000.
Today, 23 Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, including eight former political and military leaders, are being unlawfully detained in Azerbaijani prisons. Furthermore, the Aliyev regime is committing the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh and erasing the indigenous Armenian identity of Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh. It is highly deplorable that Azerbaijan’s crimes against humanity are whitewashed with the UN conference of COP29, being held in Baku in November 2024.
The EAFJD firmly reiterates that peace built on genocide, threats of further use of force, and continued risk of genocide will never bring stability or security to the region. The international community, including the leadership of the EU, must commit to fostering a durable peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan—one based on sustainability and respect for human rights, especially the fundamental rights of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. To achieve this, Azerbaijan’s aggression must be restrained, and pressure must be applied on Azerbaijan to uphold the rights of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Additionally, we call on the EU to exert immediate pressure on Azerbaijan to release all Armenian hostages illegally held in Baku. The EAFJD also urges EU leadership and relevant international organizations to take action in preventing Azerbaijan from destroying or appropriating the rich Armenian cultural and religious heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh.
EAFJD President Kaspar Karampetian declared:
“For the first time in two millennia, no Armenians remain in Artsakh, their ancestral homeland, as Nagorno-Karabakh has fallen entirely under Azerbaijan’s occupation. The EAFJD remains unwavering in its support for the inalienable rights of the indigenous Armenian population of Artsakh, including their right to collective return under international protection and recognition of their free will. We call on the international community, along with the Armenian government, to exert pressure on Azerbaijan to release Armenian hostages and put an end to its ongoing hostilities against the Armenian people and the Republic of Armenia.’’
