Leading International Legal Expert Warns of Armenian Genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh

Luis Moreno Ocampo, first prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, calls on world powers to prevent death by starvation

Ocampo calls for the blockade to be referred by the UN Security Council to the ICC

Enclave of 120,000 ethnic Armenians has been besieged by Azerbaijan for months

MONTROSE, Calif., Aug. 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Luis Moreno Ocampo, one of the world's leading international legal experts, has issued an alarming report, "Genocide against Armenians in 2023", in which he warns that the 120,000 ethnic Armenians living in the disputed area of Nagorno-Karabakh are facing the prospect of genocide by starvation at the hands of Azerbaijan. Ocampo is calling on the United Nations Security Council to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court, the body for which he served as the first prosecutor, from 2003 to 2012.

The report (read it here), done pro bono by Ocampo, has also been delivered to the President of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, to Armenia's Ambassador to the United Nations Mher Margaryan, and to the Armenian Foreign Ministry in Yerevan.

The enclave, also known as Artsakh, which lies inside Azerbaijan's official borders but which has operated as a self-governing entity for decades, is connected to the outside world by a passage known as the Lachin Corridor. On December 12, 2022, Azerbaijan blocked the road, allowing only intermittent passage by the Red Cross and Russian peacekeepers ? and since June 15 all passage has been entirely blocked.

"The blockade of the Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan impedes access to food, medical supplies, and other essentials," Ocampo wrote in his report. He argued that since the blockade is clearly directed a particular ethnic group and risks starvation, it "should be considered a Genocide."

"You will find no crematoria in Artsakh, nor machetes, but Genocide by starvation is no less devastating for being silent," Ocampo said. "It was the same deadly method used against Armenians in 1915, against Poles and Jews in 1939, and against the people of Srebrenica in 1993. And unless we intervene right now, we'll have a Genocide on our hands by year's end."

Ocampo, who began his legendary career by helping to liberate his native Argentina from military dictatorship, based his findings on Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention, which rules that "deprivation of food, medical care, shelter or clothing" constituted genocide. These conditions, the report ascertains, are currently being met in Nagorno-Karabakh. He also references a recent ruling by the International Court of Justice that found "a real and imminent risk" to the "health and life" of the Armenians there.

The report calls for two urgent and immediate measures: Lifting the Azerbaijani blockade in order to reestablish the provision of essential supplies to the area, and offering negotiated solutions to the territorial dispute. It also says that "it would be necessary to open a criminal investigation immediately, adopting a UN Security Council Resolution referring to the International Criminal Court the situation of the Lachin Corridor and Nagorno-Karabakh."

Prior to the release of the report, on July 31, Ocampo wrote to Azerbaijan's authoritarian president, Ilham Aliyev, demanding explanations and cautioning that the report was imminent. He did not receive a reply.

The tensions in the area come in the wake of a 2020 war launched by Aliyev in which Azerbaijan seized much of the area that had been under self-government, displacing tens of thousands and desecrating Armenian heritage sites in the captured areas. Armenia, which tried to defend the enclave, suffered thousands of fatalities, considers the war a defeat, and is currently involved in negotiations with Azerbaijan under the aegis of the US and European Union.

During his time at the ICC in 2008, Ocampo accused Sudan's then-President Omar al-Bashir of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur, leading the court to issue international arrest warrants. In 2020, Sudan's ruling generals agreed to hand Al-Bashir over to the ICC to face trial in The Hague, but the matter remains pending. Ocampo has also presented charges against Muammar Gaddafi for crimes against humanity committed in Libya, the former President of Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo, Joseph Kony and the former Vice President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Jean Pierre Bemba.

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SOURCE Luis Moreno Ocampo