Category: 2023

Aug 29 2023

The Karabakh region in the South Caucasus has seen endless bloodshed and perpetual conflict ever since the USSR forcibly incorporated Armenia and Azerbaijan into the Union. Akin to how modern-day Russia keeps various ethnic groups at each other’s throats, the Soviet Union also practiced a similar method in the South Caucasus.

Transferring an ethnic majority Armenian region to the Azerbaijani SSR, Josef Stalin hoped to keep the two ethnic groups, which never truly got along throughout the medieval period, in a state of endless conflict. Indeed, several decades and two brutal wars later, the Karabakh region inside Azerbaijan continues to witness unimaginable horrors, which have unfolded directly under the nose of the international community.

Azerbaijan has regained most of the region following the Second Karabakh War, and the resulting Russia-brokered Trilateral Agreement remains tenuous. However, wanting to increase their control over  the remaining 120,000 Karabakh Armenians, Azerbaijan has enacted a several months long blockade of the region. Unless the siege is lifted, a manufactured famine and genocide could result.

 

The Lachin Blockade

The current blockade against the 120,000 Armenians started on December 12th, 2022, under the guise of protest action by Azerbaijani’ eco-activists.’ The Azerbaijani military has also taken part in the siege, periodically cutting gas to the Armenians in Karabakh during the winter in the hope that these measures would force them to flee.

Reports have surfaced of malnutrition, miscarriages, and lack of medical equipment for urgent assistance for residents of the region. Karabakh Armenians are forced to travel to Armenia for urgent aid, and with the Lachin corridor blocked, they fear going through the Azerbaijani army-controlled Aghdam road over fear of harassment and abduction.

Russian peacekeepers have been lukewarm toward the ceasefire violations and have rarely moved to stem any violence. With the Kremlin allegedly using Azerbaijan’s rich gas industry as a conduit to bypass Western sanctions, Moscow has little incentive to directly support its CSTO ally.

 

Repeated Calls to Allow Aid to Flow Through

Various international humanitarian organizations, from Amnesty International, Crisis Group, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, have called on Azerbaijan to lift the blockade and allow urgent food and medical supplies into the region. Nevertheless, Baku has continuously refused these pleas.

The ICRC has been blocked from sending a long convoy of aid into Karabakh, and Azerbaijan’s ruling government has refused to allow aid to go through the Lachin corridor. The Lachin corridor is the designated road that both Baku and Yerevan signed as part of the Trilateral Agreement and capitulation facilitated by Moscow.

Ilham Aliyev and his MPs have stated they will not allow aid through Lachin, which they allege has been used for “weapons smuggling” and have demanded that only the Aghdam road, controlled by the Azerbaijani army, is used as the designated crossing point from now on. The Aghdam Road has no international monitors, and Armenian citizens have been unlawfully detained and abducted there under the guise of “terrorism.”

 

Global Reaction

The European Union and the United States have called for the blockade lifted and aid allowed through the Lachin corridor. Nevertheless, the EU and the United States have a sense of guilt and self-reflective policies; both have placated autocratic regimes such as Azerbaijan for several decades.

Previously, EU representatives have come under scrutiny for their ties to Azerbaijan and their oil policies with the South Caucasus nation, similar to how they formerly conducted business with Russia. The EU traded one oil tyrant in Vladimir Putin with another in Ilham Aliyev, and these policies have only fanned further aggression.

The Russian Federation has been lukewarm toward the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. With a geopolitical quagmire in Ukraine and prioritizing an increasingly disastrous war, Moscow is forced to look out for itself rather than support its allies. The 2022 clashes, amid which Armenia openly called on CSTO for help that never came, exemplified the hollow nature of the Russia-created defensive alliance.

Vladimir Putin, known to react harshly to what he perceives as ‘color revolutions,’ whether it’s Georgia, Ukraine, or Armenia, has held a grudge against Yerevan. Wanting Armenia to acknowledge it could not survive without Russian assistance, Moscow was perceived as the biggest winner of the Second Karabakh War as the Kremlin gained a significant foothold in the South Caucasus that it hadn’t had since the fall of the Soviet Union.

 

Mirroring the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon

Azerbaijan’s tactics against Armenia in the ongoing blockade mirror the late Ottoman Empire’s inhumane siege against Mount Lebanon during World War One. During the Great Famine, Djemal Pasha, one of the triumvirates that ruled the empire, blockaded medical and food supplies that the population of Mount Lebanon urgently needed.

As governor of Syria, and at war against the Entente, Djemal Pasha used the excuse of the French naval blockade along the Eastern Mediterranean to enable the famine. Most of Mount Lebanon’s lifeline came through the Bekaa Valley of Ottoman Syria, which Djemal oversaw.

Nevertheless, over half of the population of Mount Lebanon, the majority of which were Christians, were starved to death by the end of the First World War. The famine came out of spite from the ruling Ottoman elite as the Christians of Mount Lebanon, primarily Maronites, fought for self-determination akin to the Armenians of Karabakh that created their own breakaway state of Artsakh.

The Young Turks aimed to keep Mount Lebanon under submission and break their semi-autonomous status under French protection with the famine. Aliyev, mirroring Djemal Pasha and, to a greater extent, Slobodan Milosevic, aims to put the Karabakh Armenians under complete submission with this blockade, even if it means starving them to prove a point.

Armenia has attempted to appease Azerbaijan, with the current PM, Nikol Pashinyan recognizing Karabakh as Azerbaijani territory. Despite being the most open Armenian leader to dialogue and the peace process, Aliyev still refuses to give the Armenians of the region significant autonomy and has openly stated he never plans on opening a discussion on it.

 

Continuation of the Cycle of Violence

The former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, has warned of a potential genocide if efforts aren’t mended to end the crisis. The counterproductive actions by Baku could ignite another war, which Armenia has warned could happen if the international community doesn’t apply pressure to end the blockade. Despite decades of fighting, violence, war crimes, and refugee crises, a siege that could lead to an artificial famine and genocide will only heighten the cycle of violence.

Aliyev wants to force complete submission and loyalty on Karabakh Armenians as subjects and not citizens with limited autonomy or equal rights, enacting the same manufactured famine Djemal Pasha passed in Mount Lebanon. The world now faces its darkest hour in a hundred years—to do the right thing and call bluff on autocratic oil tyrants, or watch another Armenian genocide unfold before their eyes.

 

The views expressed in this article belong to the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect those of Geopoliticalmonitor.com.

https://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/echoes-of-mount-lebanon-famine-in-blockade-of-lachin-corridor/

Turkey – Aug 29 2023

Azerbaijan on Monday slammed French President Emmanuel Macron for “biased” remarks on its Karabakh region, which it said “undermined” the peace process with archrival Armenia.

"French President Emmanuel Macron's biased views reiterated during the Ambassadorial Conference of August 28 undermine the peace process, while creating the wrong impression on the current situation in the region and unilaterally defending Armenia," Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizada said in a statement released by the ministry.

Hajizada said the opinion expressed by Macron during the conference based on allegations regarding the humanitarian situation in the region, "attests to the erroneous policy" of France.

Macron's condemnation of the 44-day conflict that led to the liberation of Azerbaijani lands is "not comprehensible," he remarked.

"Expressions such as ‘Lachin humanitarian corridor' by the French president, as well as coercive narrative, are unacceptable and disrespectful of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan," Hajizada added.

He said France is well aware of the daily passage of dozens of Armenian residents through the Lachin road and the border checkpoint, the proposal of the Aghdam-Stepanakert (Khankendi) road and other alternative routes, and the politicization of the use of the Lachin road by Armenia and persons presenting themselves as representatives of Armenian residents.

"Instead of encouraging the implementation of the agreements reached in this direction at the beginning of August, the opinions supporting the provocative steps of Armenia are among the factors that directly impede the process.

"It would be more useful for France, who states that in Prague they were authors of the EU mission and the initiative to recognize each other's borders under the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991, to answer the question of why they did not come up with such initiatives for almost 30 years when the territories of Azerbaijan were under occupation," he added.

Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

In the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan liberated several cities, villages and settlements from Armenian occupation during 44 days of clashes. The war ended with a Russia-brokered peace agreement.

Despite ongoing talks over a long-term peace agreement, tensions between the neighboring countries rose in recent months over the Lachin road, the only land route giving Armenia access to the Karabakh region, where Azerbaijan established a border checkpoint in April on the grounds of preventing the illegal transport of military arms and equipment to the region.

In the meantime, the Azerbaijani Red Crescent sent 40 tons of flour to the Armenians in Karabakh’s Khankendi and surrounding areas, the agency’s Chair Novruz Aslan announced Tuesday.

The convoy carrying the supplies will use the Aghdam-Khankendi route, Aslan told reporters in Baku. “This is a humanitarian step and we hope it will be welcomed by the international community and the Armenians in Khankendi,” he added.

Stressing that the Red Crescent is a nongovernmental organization outside of political processes, Aslan assured they would continue helping Armenians in Karabakh.

Turkey – Aug 29 2023

ISTANBUL

Azerbaijan said on Tuesday that comments made by French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna about the situation in Karabakh a day earlier were "unacceptable." 

“French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna’s statements such as this, which do not serve peace and stability in the region and show a one-sided pro-Armenian position, are unacceptable,” Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizada said in a statement released by the ministry.

Hajizada accused Colonna of “turning a blind eye” to matters such as the occupation of the Karabakh region by Armenia for nearly 30 years, the displacement of nearly one million Azerbaijanis as refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs), and provocations by Yerevan since the end of the 2nd Karabakh War, calling it an “example of an illegal and unethical approach.”

He also denied the top French diplomat's claims that a policy is being implemented to stymie efforts to reintegrate Armenian residents of Karabakh and expel them from the region.

Hajizada said “Once again, we call on the French side to put an end to such provocative and provocative ideas.”

Colonna claimed during a speech at a conference in Paris on Monday that efforts are being made to "give the people of Nagorno-Karabakh the opportunity to live there, as well as to respect their rights, culture and history."

She also claimed that efforts have been made to “incite” a mass exodus of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.

Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

In the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan liberated several cities, villages, and settlements from Armenian occupation during 44 days of clashes. The war ended with a Russia-brokered peace agreement.

Despite ongoing talks over a long-term peace agreement, tensions between the neighboring countries rose in recent months over the Lachin road, the only land route giving Armenia access to the Karabakh region, where Azerbaijan established a border checkpoint in April on the grounds of preventing the illegal transport of military arms and equipment to the region.

Aug 28 2023

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday vowed to launch a new diplomatic initiative to up pressure on Azerbaijan over its blockade of Armenian-controlled areas of Nagorno-Karabakh which has raised fears of a humanitarian crisis.

Aug 29 2023

UK – Aug 29 2023

Education institutions are due to reopen on September 1, but parents worry for children's well-being.

STEPANAKERT-BASED JOURNALIST

Mother-of six Elina Hambardzumyan spent two weeks searching the shops of Stepanakert, Nagorny Karabakh’s main city, to find a notebook and two red-ink pens ahead of the start of the school year. The 32-year-old was desperate for stationery and other school supplies: as an Azerbaijani blockade of the Armenian-populated region drags into its ninth month, shelves remain empty.

“That’s all I have found, now I have to choose who I will give them to. My eldest son has to start the seventh grade, my two daughters the third and the second, while my twins the first grade,” she told IWPR, holding her two-month-old baby in her arms. “I am worried I will not be able to send my children to school.”

The start of school for the about 20,000 school children in the region is shrouded in uncertainty. 

Since December 2022 the Lachin corridor, the only road connecting Karabakh to Armenia and the rest of the world, has been blocked: first by Baku-backed eco-activists protesting over Karabakh authorities’ allegedly illegal mining activities, then by Azerbaijani police at the official checkpoint set up on the Hagari bridge in late April. 

Even this restricted movement came to a halt in June, including for humanitarian cargo, exacerbating the region’s isolation and shortages of food, medicines, fuel and other essential goods for its 120,000 residents, including about 30,000 children. 

“We are going to start the new school year in these conditions…we believe that the children and students of Artsakh [as Armenians call the region] should not be deprived of the opportunity to be educated and develop. Even under these conditions, their right to education must be fulfilled,” Norayr Mkrtchyan, the region’s minister of education, science, culture, youth and sports told IWPR. 

The lack of supplies is just one of numerous challenges. Mkrtchyan said that food shortages had caused child malnutrition, while the lack of electricity and heating and poor sanitary and hygienic conditions also impact on schools. The lack of fuel means that children will have to walk to school as private cars sit idle and public transport has been suspended; even the use of emergency vehicles has been reduced to the bare minimum . 

“The ministry and the government are trying to find solutions,” Mkrtchyan said, adding that schools and universities were nonetheless still scheduled to resume on September 1.

The Armenian-populated breakaway region fought two wars, in the mid-1990s and at the end of 2020. The latter saw Azerbaijan regaining control over large swathes of territory it had lost, but a ceasefire brokered by Russia established that free movement through the Lachin corridor would be guaranteed.

On August 17, the UN security council convened an emergency meeting called by Armenia, but failed to issue any statement or resolution on the situation. Baku has long denied that Karabakh is under blockade and has proposed to provide humanitarian aid to the region via the Azerbaijani city of Aghdam. This alternative received the backing of Brussels and Moscow but has been rejected by Karabakh authorities who see it as  a legitimisation of Azerbaijani rule over the region. 

On August 18, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urged “to resume urgently needed humanitarian deliveries” to the region. The only humanitarian organisation operating across the Lachin corridor, including the transportation of critically ill individuals, stated that the latest deliveries of medical supplies occurred on July 7 and of food on June 14. 

DISRUPTED EDUCATION

The 118 educational institutions in the region continued to operate in the six months of 2023 despite the blockade, but regular classes were disrupted by power outages and the interruption of gas supply.

Nune Lalayan, a social studies teacher, maintained that remaining united was key.

“It is difficult, but I know that we will overcome this challenge with strong will and honour, just like we did in the 1990s,” the 37-year-old, a widow with a schoolchild, told IWPR. “I myself went to school in similar conditions: without a bag, without notebooks or stationery. However, all these obstacles did not hinder my desire to study. Knowledge is the key to our success.”

Hambardzumyan is also optimistic “because my children study well and deserve education. It would be terrible if school was interrupted again, like during the war or the pandemic [in 2020]”.

She is also worried about food; like many parents her day is spent in a quest to feed her family. 

“Today we ate buckwheat and nothing else – I could not find any other food, including  bread,” she said.

On August 15, Karabakh’s human rights defender’s office reported that a 40-year-old man died of “chronic malnutrition… [and] protein and energy deficiency”, as a result of the blockade.

Ombudsman Gegham Stapanyan told IWPR that ensuring the right to education was not only about merely reopening schools. 

“The conditions for the child's proper participation in the educational process include proper school feeding, availability of stationery items, appropriate sanitary conditions at the school,” he said. “I believe that the government is not able to fully provide all these components under the blockade.

“At the same time, I believe that the state has an obligation to ensure the realisation of the right to education, even in conditions of its objective impossibility. In my opinion, the option of combining on-site and distance learning should be considered.”

Authorities are also trying to solve the issue of students in the region who were admitted to Armenian universities as well as further education institutions abroad. 

“We reached out to interested third parties to help [us] relocate those students. We hope that we will be able to settle the transfer of all students by September 1,” Mkrtchyan said. 

Gulnara Harutyunyan, from Chartar, a town about 45 kilometres east of Stepanakert, said she was worried that her 18-year-old daughter Srbuhi could not start her studies after securing a place at Yerevan Linguistics University.

“I am very worried about how she would manage to go through the Azerbaijani [checkpoint],” the 41-year-old, who lost her husband during the 2020 war, told IWPR in a phone conversation . She has two other children of school age. “Sometimes I fear that maybe I won't see my child again, but maybe this is her salvation.”

On August 21 and 22, Russian peacekeepers brokered a deal to allow some residents, students and Russian passport holders, to travel via the Lachin corridor to Armenia, triggering speculation that Azerbaijani and Karabakh authorities may be within reach of an agreement.

The agreement allowed Srbuhi to travel to Yerevan to begin her studies.

“There were many people with cameras at the checkpoint. We felt like we were in a circus, they were filming us from all sides, it was very unpleasant, intimidating, and humiliating. I trembled because my father also took part in the war and died. I thought I might be mistreated because of that,” the 18-year-old told IWPR in a phone conversation from the Armenian capital. 

“I came to pursue my dream to study and return to Artsakh. But under these conditions, I am not sure. Even if I am far from my family, I cannot go through those conditions of humiliation and fear again.”

Iran – Aug 29 2023

Aug 29 2023