06.09.2023


On September 5, 2023, the Lemkin Institute released a 126-page report “Risk Factors and Indicators of the Crime of Genocide in the Republic of Artsakh: Applying the UN Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes to the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict.”

The evidence presented in the Report suggests “that the crime of genocide may already be taking place in the form of the blockade, which is both “Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group” and “[d]eliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part” (paragraphs II.b. and II.c. of the 1948 Genocide Convention).”

The Report has also documented Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s public commitments to rid the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) of Armenians. According to the Report, Aliev speeches, the blockade of the Lachin Corridor, breaches of the November 2020 Ceasefire, as well as the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage are signals of the special intent to commit genocide.

The Report also brings evidences that “President Aliyev may be planning a military assault on Artsakh in the very near future,” which could lead to the mass murder stage of genocide.

The Report also presents 12 Recommendations. Most importantly, the Report recommends to address the right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh as a basic principle under international law and in the recognition that, as facts on the ground prove, Armenians are unable to live under the Azerbaijani authority and power. And, to “Recognize the decades-long efforts of the Artsakh people to establish a State according to the international requirements for statehood, which has resulted in the building of a government based on the division of powers and democratic representation.”

Link to access the full report: https://bit.ly/ArtsakhGenocideReport։