Azerbaijan, host of COP29, guilty of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Nagorno-Karabakh attacks in 2023: report

Azerbaijan carried out “ethnic cleansing” of the Armenian population 14 months ago in attacks on the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, according to a new report by the Washington-based nonprofit Freedom House.

The comprehensive reportpublished on the first day of COP29, the United Nations Climate Change Conference which took place this month in Azerbaijan, is based on interviews with over 300 Armenians from Karabakh. The summit, which began on November 11, ended this weekend in Baku, the country’s capital, under the auspices of the same government accused of committing crimes against humanity.

Human rights groupsenvironmental activist Greta Thunberg and politicians in Canada and United States were among those who expressed disappointment and concern that the conference was being held in a major oil-producing country questionable record observance of rights – the allegation that Political leaders of Azerbaijan called “disgusting” and a “smear campaign.”

The Freedom House report includes accounts from survivors of last fall’s military operations, including this woman’s account of how the attack began: “On September 19 (2023), I returned home at noon for lunch. My child came and told me that I heard an explosion and saw through the window that they were shooting into a residential area.

Less than two weeks later, the interviewee, her child and over 100,000 other Armenians they would be refugeespart of a campaign of brutal forced displacement that ended over a millennium of Armenian settlement there.

The report titled “Why are there no Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh?” constitutes a comprehensive indictment President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and his government.

Conducted by researchers from Freedom House and six partner organizations – four groups from Armenia with experience in field research, a Ukrainian non-governmental organization focused on Russian war crimes, and a group from Brussels – its conclusions are indisputable.

The report said the latest 24-hour offensive by Azerbaijani troops in the territory last year was “the culmination of an intense, multi-year campaign” during which the perpetrators “deliberately killed civilians and enjoyed absolute impunity.” “Actions of the Azerbaijani state,” he concludes, “constitute ethnic cleansing using forced displacement as a means.”

Exodus of almost the entire population

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was one of the longest-running disputes in the former Soviet Union. Local Armenians in the region, supported by Armenia itself, fought a successful war in the early 1990s to secede from the newly independent Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan responded in 2020conquering three-quarters of the territory in a 44-day war.

Russian peacekeepers entered the territory after the end of the war but proved powerless to stop Azerbaijan’s nine-month blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh or its military offensive on September 19, 2023 – which led to the complete occupation of Azerbaijan and exodus of almost the entire population.

The hundreds of testimonies about these events collected in the new Freedom House report make harrowing reading.

“People were starving and fainting in bread lines,” says one interlocutor, describing famine-like conditions during the blockade of Azerbaijan that cut off all access to the outside world – including crucial food supplies. “It was very difficult to survive. We thought we would actually starve to death at the end.”

Testimonies about the latest Azerbaijani offensive and subsequent exodus paint an even worse picture. “I was surrounded by children and I tried to prevent panic,” says one of the women from the village of Sarnaghbyur. “I told them not to be afraid and suggested they pray. And at that moment we heard an explosion near us,” he says, describing how Azerbaijani shelling killed five civilians, including three children.

Others describe in detail how Azerbaijani soldiers taunted and harassed them, sometimes even beating them or stealing their jewelry as they made the dangerous journey to Armenia. “(The Azerbaijanis) turned up the music, shouted at us, insulted us with finger gestures and said: ‘Leave, leave!'” says another local.

Scientists say the intensity of these stories made even creating the report a difficult experience.

“There are blood-curdling testimonies from Karabakh Armenians that were difficult even for us to read,” said Andranik Shirinyan, Freedom House country representative in Armenia. “Working on this report was mentally and psychologically difficult for everyone involved.”

Evidence in the report that constitutes a ‘call to action’

The sum total of the Azerbaijani government’s actions and the unbearable environment it created in Nagorno-Karabakh was the basis for Freedom House’s declaration of ethnic cleansing in the region.

“‘Ethnic cleansing’ is not a defined legal term – it is a political term used to emphasize the seriousness of the atrocities that have occurred in a given territory,” Shirinyan said.

“We analyzed three periods – the post-2020 war period, the blockade and the exodus. In analyzing them, we came across findings of extrajudicial killings, torture, human rights violations and serious human rights violations. “We realized that Azerbaijan had created an environment in Nagorno-Karabakh that would not allow the Armenian community there to remain and live in dignity.”

Freedom House based its assessment in part on legal conclusions from the act International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslaviathe United Nations body prosecuting war crimes committed during the Balkan conflicts in the 1990s.

The parallels between the country’s war crimes and the Azerbaijani government’s actions in Nagorno-Karabakh make the term “ethnic cleansing” entirely appropriate, other human rights experts say.

“Freedom House’s in-depth investigation shows how the Azerbaijani authorities’ offensive in September 2023 is consistent with similar crimes of forced displacement (that) have been investigated by international courts,” said Steve Swerdlow, a human rights lawyer and associate professor of international relations at the University of . Southern California.

“These include former Yugoslavia as well as more recent cases such as Ethnic cleansing in Burma against the Rohingya. The damning evidence contained in this report is a call to action in international courts against impunity.”

By the time of publication, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had not responded to a request for comment.

“Now I really have nowhere to go back to.”

Amid the brutality, the report said, nearly 2,000 soldiers from the Russian peacekeeping contingent stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh simply stood by and watched. It is full of anecdotes describing their passivity and refusal to face the violence in Azerbaijan.

“We have seen many cases where Russian soldiers simply stood by while Azerbaijani soldiers threatened the livelihoods of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Shirinyan said. “It is safe to say that Russian peacekeepers were unable or unwilling to fulfill their duties.”

Shirinyan expressed hope that the report would help bring some kind of accountability to the Azerbaijani government, at least in the long term, despite the fact that Baku is currently involved in erasing all traces of the presence of Armenians in the region.

Most Armenians in Karabakh have long since lost such hope.

“Until recently, I had little hope, fueled by international calls for the return of Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Lilit Shahverdyan, a journalist in Stepanakert, the now empty regional capital.

“A few days ago, our house was demolished, along with the entire neighborhood where I grew up. Countless other apartment buildings are looted every day,” she said.

“I deeply believe that Aliyev’s intention is to destroy any hope of returning… Now I really have nowhere to return to.”