STP hands over appeal to Chancellor Scholz:

--- Berlin, August 23, 2023 --- This Wednesday, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) and the working group “Anerkennung – gegen Genozid, für Völkerverständigung e.V.” held an impressive vigil in front of the Federal Chancellery in Berlin, demanding Olaf Scholz to try and prevent the impending genocide of the Armenian people in Artsakh / Nagorno-Karabakh. “The German Federal Government should not – again – remain silent in the face of a genocide of the Armenian people, as during World War One,” emphasized Sarah Reinke, the STP’s expert on Eastern Europe. Together with Armenians living in Germany, the human rights organization demanded the Chancellor to try and bring about an immediate end to Azerbaijan’s ongoing hunger blockade against the predominantly Armenian enclave. In order to achieve this, it will be necessary to impose effective sanctions on the regime. 

While the Red Cross was able to provide aid at the beginning, Azerbaijan decided to close down the only road to the neighboring Republic of Armenia, the Lachin Corridor, in June. The enclosed region is not receiving any medicine nor food. The people are starving. The first Armenian starved to death on August 15. International experts and the STP are warning of an impending genocide. 

Reinke criticized the diplomatic stance of German politicians, calling it a scandal that Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev is seen as a “reliable energy partner” and that the suffering of the Armenian people in Artsakh is apparently ignored. Since December 12, 2022, Alijev has been continuously tightening the hunger blockade. “Aliyev is ignoring the right to self-determination of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. He is doing everything he can to either subjugate them or to displace or destroy them – and nobody is trying to stop him,” Reinke said. The 120,000 people – including 30,000 children, 20,000 elderly people, 9,000 disabled people, and 2,000 pregnant women – are in distress. Agricultural production and the medical care system are failing. The number of premature births and miscarriages has tripled, and the economy has collapsed.

The President of the Republic of Artsakh, Arajik Harutjunjan, described the situation in his country as “a genocide in a large concentration camp”. The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and the International Association of Genocide Scholars are warning of an “imminent genocide”. In a human rights report (dated August 7, 2023), Luis Moreno Ocampo, former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, stated that Azerbaijan’s blockade falls under Article II, 3 of the UN Genocide Convention.

Contact: Sarah Reinke: +49 551 49906-13; s.reinke@gfbv.de