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By Len Wicks on 

    read10 min
Azerbaijan, noted by Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders as having 
a poor track record on human rights, has committed ethnic cleansing against a 
group of indigenous Armenians while the world has remained silent. Former Chief 
Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno Ocampo reported that 
Baku’s siege of the former Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) is deemed illegal by the 
International Court of Justice, as being consistent with Article II (c) of the 
Genocide Convention:

Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring 
about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

Why should people care? Besides inflicting suffering on the innocent Armenians 
of Artsakh, this egregious act has also essentially undermined the so-called 
‛rules-based international order’ and has emboldened dictators to use force to 
solve political conflicts. The Caucasus could now face a regional war, sucking 
in Russia, Turkey, Iran, and Israel while China is undoubtedly taking note with 
Taiwan in its sights.

The authoritarian Azerbaijani regime that invaded Armenia in 2021 and 2022, and 
which illegally holds Armenian Prisoners of War, has committed sadistic war 
crimes like beheadings and bombing of churches and inculcates state-sponsored 
racism against Armenians, is trying to justify its actions. It falsely portrays 
people subjected to a starvation-inducing blockade as akin to the 1930s 
Ukrainian Holodomor and the September 19, 2023 military attack as leaving lands 
where they lived for thousands of years “voluntarily.”

Until now, Azerbaijan has been able to control the narrative, using tools like 
the infamous Azerbaijan Laundromat bribery scheme of politicians and media, to 
avoid the West’s scrutiny of the fact that it is a Russian ally, and even helps 
Russia to avoid sanctions by re-selling Russian gas. Baku calls Armenians 
“separatists,” and “rebels.” Even Western media use inappropriate terms to 
describe Artsakh as “breakaway” or “separatist.” This is an injustice because 
Artsakh’s bid for democracy and freedom from Azerbaijan’s human rights abuse was 
not a case of separatism.

The First Republic of Armenia was established in 1918 during the Russian 
Empire’s collapse. Artsakh was part of the predominantly Christian nation 
Armenia, which was recognized as a de jure sovereign state by the Great Powers 
in 1920. Unlike Armenia, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic 1918-20 was not 
recognized as being sovereign (not even by the Ottoman Empire, nor by the League 
of Nations). As a self-declared de facto entity without recognized territory, 
Baku had no legal claim to Armenia or Artsakh.

Following the illegal Soviet invasion of sovereign Armenia in late 1920, in 1921 
Stalin transferred Artsakh, populated 95% by Armenians, from the Armenian Soviet 
Socialist Republic (SSR) to the Azerbaijan SSR as an autonomous oblast. This is 
despite the fact that on November 30, 1920, the Azerbaijan SSR had already 
recognized Nagorno Karabakh, Zangezur and Nakhichevan as being part of Soviet 
Armenia! Stalin’s “divide and rule” policy has caused conflict between Armenia 
and Azerbaijan ever since. 

During Stalin’s reign, he ignored multiple racist-based pogroms and massacres, 
including the Armenian genocide-era 1920 Shushi massacre by Azerbaijanis that 
killed 20,000 Armenians and the ethnical cleansing of this Artsakh city. 
Armenia’s longstanding wariness of their eastern neighbor is therefore 
understandable. 

However, there are two critical points as to why Stalin’s decision to transfer 
Artsakh to Soviet Azerbaijan is irrelevant to Artsakh’s sovereign status: 

The Azerbaijan SSR was only a non-sovereign province of the Soviet Union, and as 
such had no right to claim territory by itself under Westphalian sovereignty (no 
rule by another party); and
Azerbaijan itself did not claim any sovereign rights from the Azerbaijan SSR 
period; instead on August 30th, 1991, the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan enacted a 
Declaration On the Restoration of the State Independence of the Republic of 
Azerbaijan on the basis of the unrecognized and non-sovereign Azerbaijan 
Democratic Republic of 1918-20!
The first time that Azerbaijan became a sovereign, de jure state able to claim 
internationally recognized “territorial integrity” was on December 26, 1991, at 
the fall of the Soviet Union. According to the UN Charter, “territorial 
integrity” is only relevant to external threats such as invasion and does not 
conflict with the self-determination rights of people. This was a pivotal moment 
in history, three years after Nagorno Karabakh had legally separated from the 
Azerbaijan SSR province by formal referendum. It was also after a vote of 99.9% 
in a 1991 referendum (82.1% voter turnout) to support an independence 
declaration for Artsakh (and the Shahumyan region) from the USSR itself on 
September 02, 1991, in accordance with USSR Secession Law (Articles 3 and 5).

When the Soviet Union and its laws were declared void on December 26, 1991, two 
legal entities emerged from the former Azerbaijan SSR’s territory. Both had 
“clean sheet” rights under Westphalian sovereignty, consistent with the 
Montevideo Convention. Thus, the territory and people that each controlled were 
a vital aspect prior to the final step before sovereignty – international 
recognition. 

Unfortunately, and despite the July 7th, 1988 European Parliament’s support for 
Artsakh’s reunification with Armenia due to ongoing pogroms and massacres 
against Armenians, the West ignored Article 1 of the ICCPR international law on 
self-determination that it has since granted to many others. This can only be 
explained as Western ignorance or self-interested geopolitics, as there can be 
no logical reason for denying the democratic Artsakh people their rights under 
international law while recognizing others such as Montenegro (recognized by 
Turkey and Azerbaijan), South Sudan (recognized by Azerbaijan), and Kosovo and 
Timor-Leste (Recognized by Turkey). 

With the exception of Montenegro, these are all cases of “separatism” from a 
parent sovereign state that still existed. As noted, Artsakh is not a case of 
separatism, as the parent state (the USSR) no longer existed when it attempted 
to reunify with Armenia. Therefore, Artsakh had exactly the same rights to 
declare independence as Azerbaijan, under the relevant former Soviet and 
international laws. 

Of course, Azerbaijan would have everyone believe that once a state is 
sovereign, then there can never be any changes to its internationally recognized 
borders. If that were the case, then Azerbaijan would not exist, as it was part 
of a sovereign Persian Empire (now Iran). Some might also assume that because 
the former Nagorno- Karabakh’s borders were within Azerbaijan’s borders, then it 
must be part of Baku’s territory, but they have obviously never seen a map of a 
sovereign Lesotho!

Moreover, when post-Soviet leaders agreed to the December 21, 1991 Alma-Ata 
Protocol’s (non-binding) Preamble that recognized the ‟…territorial integrity of 
each other and inviolability of the existing borders” the “existing borders” 
must, by definition, include the legally established borders of Artsakh!

The failure of the world to recognize Artsakh in 1991, and to take 
Responsibility to Protect action (R2P), led directly to the First Artsakh War. 
Tens of thousands needlessly lost their lives after Baku’s invasion, aided by 
Soviets during the first years of the war. Azerbaijan committed multiple war 
crimes and spread disinformation during this war, including, as the evidence 
strongly indicates, the massacre of its own Khojaly citizens near the Azeri-held 
city of Aghdam, so it could falsely blame Armenians.

UN Security Council resolutions did not address the status of Nagorno-Karabakh 
or even determine the extent of the territory concerned, as the UN Security 
Council had mandated the OSCE Minsk Group to facilitate a peaceful settlement of 
the conflict in this officially disputed territory. Azerbaijan has repeatedly 
ignored its responsibilities under these Resolutions and the 1994 Ceasefire, 
including cessation of blockade, rendering them virtually redundant. It seems 
that nothing has changed. 

The Nagorno-Karabakh authorities were officially signatories for all ceasefire 
agreements, which means Azerbaijan de facto recognized Artsakh as an entity – a 
key step to sovereignty. 

Azerbaijani President Aliyev had agreed to the Lachin Corridor allowing 
unhindered access in both directions as part of the Russian-brokered November 
9th, 2020 ceasefire. However, Russian “peacekeepers” empowered by the ceasefire 
effectively became jailers, supporting Azerbaijan’s genocidal blockade by not 
intervening to ensure Baku’s compliance. Refugees interviewed by the author even 
confirmed that Russia was given a day’s notice of Azerbaijan’s September 19th, 
2023 invasion, while the Kremlin misinformed the world that they only had a few 
minute’s notice!

Of deep concern are allegations of possible mass executions of civilians by the 
Azerbaijani Army in four villages on September 19, 2023, which may have been 
witnessed by Russian peacekeepers at Dzhanyatag. The Russians were reportedly 
killed, for reasons that have been downplayed by the Kremlin. These Bucha 
massacre-like war crime allegations must be fully investigated by an independent 
body.

Azerbaijan’s goal is not just the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, but the 
occupation of Armenia. Azerbaijani authorities have openly communicated this for 
decades. For example, in 2005 the mayor of Baku at a meeting with German 
officials stated: “Our goal is the complete elimination of Armenians. You, 
Nazis, already eliminated the Jews in the 1930s and 40s, right? You should be 
able to understand us.” In 2004, Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister’s spokesperson 
stated: “Within the next 25 years there will be no state of Armenia in the South 
Caucasus.” President Aliyev has also been consistently vocal about his genocidal 
intentions against Armenians. 

The 2020 Artsakh War had significant geopolitical implications and affected 
regional stability, even drawing Syrian mercenaries transported by Turkey. 
Emboldened with their victory in 2020, Azerbaijan now seeks to force, by 
military means, a sovereign corridor through southern Armenia, with regional war 
implications, as this would cut off a vital trade route for India and Iran. 

The proclamation by an unelected Artsakh authority that Artsakh would cease to 
exist on January 1st, 2024, was made under duress without the democratic will of 
its people and is therefore illegal. Artsakh had a stronger legal case to be 
recognized as independent than separatist examples like Kosovo. However, the 
international community’s cynical silence on the genocide by starvation for 
nearly ten  months followed by the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh Armenians and its 
tacit support of Azerbaijan’s genocidal dictatorship for its polluting oil and 
gas money as well as transferring Russian gas to Europe is testimony to the 
failure of the “international order.” Even the UN and the Vatican were 
shamefully silent.

The world’s R2P failure has also allowed the Kremlin to treat Armenians as pawns 
in its geopolitical games once again. In response, Armenia ratified the Rome 
Convention that created the International Criminal Court, which has indicted 
Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is clear that Russia is no longer an ally 
of Armenia; quite the reverse, in fact.

As the “Leader of the Free World,” the United States has shamefully done no 
better than the Kremlin. It has funded Azerbaijan to support a proxy war with 
Iran, while successive presidential administrations have presented these actions 
to Congress as preventing terrorism in order to justify a Section 907 waiver, 
opening the door to direct US aid to Azerbaijan where previously Azerbaijan was 
ineligible. The United States and its allies must now protect Armenia against 
the consequences of its actions, which effectively supported ethnic cleansing 
and coerced a naïve Armenian government to abandon Armenians of Artsakh. 

Magnitsky-style sanctions must be imposed on Azerbaijani officials in charge of 
orchestrating war crimes and genocide against Armenians to signal the 
unacceptability of ethnic cleansing, as Acting Assistant Secretary of State for 
European and Eurasian Affairs Yuri Kim said just five days before Azerbaijan 
ethnically cleansed Artsakh. Internationally experienced lawyers should 
immediately work on the case of investigating and prosecuting Azerbaijan’s 
dictator Aliyev for committing genocide at the International Criminal Court.

In order to undo the grave injustice perpetrated against Artsakh’s Armenians, 
the civilized world must first recognize their immense loss of life, economic 
viability, and irreplaceable cultural heritage. Crimes such as these demand 
substantial compensation and a pathway to restoration. 

Azerbaijan is a corrupt and unstable dictatorship that oppresses its own people 
and is potentially threatened by both Iran and Russia, with Russia having lost 
influence in the region due to Turkish infiltration into the South Caucasus. 
Artsakh met all legal provisions for international recognition, given what 
should have been Azerbaijan’s actual legally claimable territory at the USSR’s 
fall. 

Therefore, Artsakh’s people should never give up the hope of returning to their 
ancient homeland as a free and independent nation with international 
peacekeepers, if the opportunity permits, by establishing a government-in-exile. 
The West must restore confidence in the international order by recognizing the 
egregious error committed by allowing Azerbaijan’s illegal annexation of 
Nagorno-Karabakh. Otherwise, the world will stand on the abyss of a global 
conflict, where the law of the jungle prevails.

Armenia | Azerbaijan | Crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh | Europe & Eurasia | Genocide 
| The Latest
Armenian Genocide | Azerbaijan | Christians | Ethnic Cleansing | Genocide | 
International Court of Justice (ICJ) | Nagorno-Karabakh (Republic of Artsakh)

Dual national Australian/New Zealander Len Wicks has a background in aviation 
management, aviation safety audit and management, tourism, and international 
conventions and relations, having worked in New Zealand, Oman (during the 1st 
Gulf War) and Thailand (for the United Nations).

The Singaporean government engages Mr. Wicks as a special advisor. He is the 
co-owner of a resort complex in Armenia, which is a base for the charity he 
founded (Adopt-a-Village).

Mr. Wicks authored, inter alia, the trilogy novel Origins: Discovery and an 
expose on the Khojaly Massacre, which was published by the Armenian National 
Academy of Science. He also has two patents and an interest in renewable energy, 
with new designs for a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine and a green hydrogen system 
intended to decarbonize seawater.

In his private life, Mr. Wicks is a human rights activist focused on genocide 
awareness. He vlogs on YouTube under Straight Talk from the Homeland and on X at 
@OriginsD.