German Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) held a news conference in Berlin today on the issue of genocide in Artsakh hosting the former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno Ocampo.

STP also organized a protest action in front of the German Chancellor's office during the visit of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

Photo: Nora Erdmann

STP provided Mediamax with the text of Luis Moreno Ocampo's statement.

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Thank you for inviting me to be with you on this important day.

We are here remembering the beginning of the 1915 Armenian genocide. How did it start?

Destroying the leadership was the strategy in 1915 and is the strategy in 2024.  

On the night of April 24, 1915, the Ottoman forces arrested in Istanbul hundreds of Armenian leaders. They were deported and killed. Targeting the leaders was the first step to destroying the Armenian community.

It’s a bitter irony that the same strategy is applied again. At the end of September 2023, all the Armenians living in Artsakh were victims of genocide; they were removed by force and starvation from their ancestral land. Twenty-three of them, including three former Artsakh presidents and five other community leaders, were incarcerated by Azerbaijan. They were deported to Baku, and they are still in jail.

Their captivity is part of the genocide and a message to their community: if you come back to Nagorno-Karabakh, you will be starved, incarcerated, or killed. The Armenian leaders became hostages.

We are at the seat of the first German Parliament. This should be an informal parliament to represent the Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh. They have no political representation. And the leaders have no independent judges to protect their rights.

Photo: Nora Erdmann

There are no independent judges in Azerbaijan. It is not my opinion it is the US State Department 2023 Country Report on Human Rights Practices.

Referring to Azerbaijan it provided credible information about “torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by members of the security forces; harsh and sometimes life-threatening prison conditions; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary.”

In 1915, German diplomats and consuls were sending countless messages to Berlin with details about the massacres; the German Ambassador in Constantinople reported to the Imperial Chancellor on July 7, 1915: “The government is indeed pursuing its purpose of eradicating the Armenian race from the Turkish Empire...” But they received a clear command from the authorities: “not to interfere and keep the confidentiality”.

In 1915, the German Chancellor explained, “Our only aim is to keep Turkey on our side until the end of the war, no matter whether as a result Armenians do perish or not...”  

One hundred nine years later, after the Holocaust and the 1948 Genocide Convention, the German government has the chance to do something different. On Friday, the current German chancellor will meet with President Aliyev. A genocide could not be ignored.

As a party to the Genocide Convention Art 1, Germany has the legal obligation to prevent genocide. That means to ensure that Armenians must return to their land in Nagorno-Karabakh and their leaders released.

Photo: Nora Erdmann

I want to assist the Chancellor by providing detailed information.

First on Aliyev intentions to destroy the Armenians.

Last Thursday, American Judge Honorable Gassia Apkarian, who was born in Lebanon to genocide survivors and was representing the Center for Truth and Justice, presented evidence and requested the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to investigate President Aliyev for genocide against ethnic Armenians.

The challenge in substantiating genocide often lies in proving intent to destroy a designated group. In many cases, perpetrators of genocide attempted to conceal their genocidal intent. Judge Apkarian exposed the consistent declarations made by President Aliyev during the last ten years, unequivocally demonstrating his intention to destroy ethnic Armenians.

As early as April 2015, President Aliyev published a statement on the government’s official website warning ethnic Armenians: “If you do not want to die, then get out of Azerbaijani lands. […].”

Last September. President Aliyev celebrated the forcible displacement of ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh during several televised addresses, declaring, "I said that if they [ethnic Armenians] do not leave our lands of their own free will, we will chase them away like dogs, and we are doing that."

Photo: Nora Erdmann

Remarkably, Azerbaijan’s Parliament, controlled by Aliyev, shows that Nagorno-Karabakh is not the final goal. It claimed the Republic of Armenia´s territory as West Azerbaijan. It has adopted a resolution titled "Statement on the return of Western Azerbaijanis to their historical homeland," claiming its sovereignty over the entirety of Armenian territory. There is no doubt about the intention to destroy. It is a genocide approved by a Parliament.

Massive killings are not the only form of genocide. Starvation and mental harm are also forms of genocide prescribed by Article 2 (b) and (c) of the Genocide Convention.  Both tactics were used against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh in full sight of the international community.

Again, it is not my opinion. On September 21, 2023, at the UN Security Council meeting, the German Foreign Minister Ms. Annalena Baerbock recognized the factual circumstances required by the Genocide Convention art 2 c) She said: “It is hard to imagine the hardship that the children, women, and men of Nagorno-Karabakh have been enduring for months after the Baku authorities effectively closed the Lachin corridor. Store shelves remained empty, medical supplies ran out, and electricity and gasoline were scarce.”

Photo: Nora Erdmann

And she also referred to the forced displacement caused by mental harm art 2 b. “Thousands have been forced to flee their homes. Azerbaijan has chosen to create facts on the ground by military force. We firmly condemn Baku’s military assault and call on it to permanently and completely cease its military actions. A displacement and forced exodus of ethnic Armenians from Karabakh are not acceptable.”

Genocide has been committed, and while there are Armenian leaders in jail is still committed

While Armenians cannot return to their land in Nagorno-Karabakh genocide is ongoing.

Prevention does not require a court decision to decide whether genocide happened. Does not require evidence “beyond any doubt” as a criminal conviction. It does not require a “reasonable basis to believe” the standard to open an investigation. It is enough to know that there is a “serious risk” that genocide will be committed.

In its 2007 Bosnia v. Serbia judgment, the International Court of Justice established the principle that the state's “obligation to prevent, and the corresponding duty to act, arise at the instant that the State learns of, or should normally have learned of, the existence of a serious risk that genocide will be committed.”7

Photo: Nora Erdmann

The first step toward such prevention is to recognize the genocidal situation.

Why is there no prevention?

Ursula Von der Leyen, as President of the European Commission, has repeatedly expressed the need for Azerbaijan's gas and described President Aliyev as a “reliable partner.”

I understand that Azerbaijan’s supply represents around 3% of European gas. The provision is possible because Russia sells its gas to Azerbaijan for domestic consumption.

But whatever economic or political interest in maintaining a good relationship with Azerbaijan, those interests could not postpone the commission of genocide and the imprisonment of the Artsakh leaders.

Negotiation is needed to solve the differences between Azerbaijan and Armenians living in Armenia or Nagorno-Karabakh, but genocide is a limit impossible to ignore in a “constructive dialogue.”

Photo: Nora Erdmann

In addition, any assistance from Germany to President Aliyev or Azerbaijan that could be deemed to “facilitate” genocide could be considered complicity in genocide. President Aliyev repeatedly mentioned his advantages in “the geopolitical situation in the world and the region.”

Denying the genocide constitutes a form of supporting Azerbaijan's geopolitical advantages. It is allowing it to continue causing mental harm to those removed from their ancestral lands in Nagorno-Karabakh and to those in jail in Baku.

Ignoring genocide is supporting Azerbaijan geopolitical advantages.

German delegation in Baku, during a UN meeting on climate change COP in November, while the Armenians leaders are in Baku prisons will be complicity.

We are living in interesting times; humanity is deciding its future. This is a meeting to discuss our future.

December 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the Genocide Convention’s adoption, exposing that never again is an unfulfilled promise.

The UN special advisor on genocide alerted about 6 genocides during the last year.

Photo: Nora Erdmann

This is the perfect place to discuss humanity’s future. Armenians know about genocide. Germany was able to recover from the Holocaust, became a party of the Genocide Convention, and led the establishment of the International Criminal Court.

I am sure that Azerbaijan proxies will attack me personally for these remarks. Those media attacks would be an attempt to distract attention. I will ignore them.

Germany´s obligation to prevent genocide requires to confront President Aliyev’s genocidal intention to attack Armenians, guarantee the rights of the Armenians to return to their ancestral land safely, and to ensure the immediate release the “Armenian hostages.”