In an expert opinion requested by Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leader in late July, Luis Moreno Ocampo, an Argentine lawyer who served at the Hague court in 2003-2012, stressed that “there is an ongoing Genocide against 120,000 Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
In the document published from New York on August 7 and titled “Genocide against Armenians in 2023” the 71-year-old lawyer who successfully prosecuted for crimes against humanity three heads of state, including the president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, said that “the blockade of the Lachin Corridor by the Azerbaijani security forces impeding access to any food, medical supplies, and other essentials should be considered a Genocide under Article II, (c) of the Genocide Convention: ‘Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.’”
“There are no crematories, and there are no machete attacks. Starvation is the invisible Genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks. Starvation as a method to destroy people was neglected by the entire international community when it was used against Armenians in 1915, Jews and Poles in 1939, Russians in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) in 1941, and Cambodians in 1975/1976. Starvation was also neglected when used in Srebrenica in the winter of 1993/1994,” Ocampo wrote.
He reminded that analyzing the Srebrenica case, the International Court of Justice ruled that “deprivation of food, medical care, shelter or clothing” constitute Genocide within the meaning of Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention.
“State parties of the Genocide Convention assumed the duty to prevent and punish Genocide. The International Court of Justice ruled that state parties should ‘not wait until the perpetration of Genocide commences,’ and ‘The whole point of the obligation is to prevent or attempt to prevent the occurrence of the act,’” the lawyer noted.
In his expert opinion Ocampo wrote that “there is a reasonable basis to believe that a Genocide is being committed against Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023.”
He stressed that the International Court of Justice, at the request of Armenia, has already analyzed the Lachin corridor’s blockade.
“The Court focused on State liability for alleged violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination rather than individual criminal responsibility for the commission of Genocide.
Though predicated on a different set of State obligations, the Court confirmed the occurrence of the material elements of Genocide that are set out in Article II, (c) of the Genocide Convention: “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.”
The Court’s preliminary findings considered “plausible” that the Lachin corridor blockade produced “a real and imminent risk” to the “health and life” of an ethnic group, “the Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
The intention, a subjective element required by the crime of Genocide, should be deduced from the facts and statements from [Azerbaijani] President [Ilham] Aliyev, who has supreme authority in Azerbaijan,” Ocampo wrote.
The Argentine lawyer went on to note that “President Aliyev, in a fair trial, would have the opportunity to provide a different interpretation of the indicia.”
“In the meantime, there is reasonable basis to believe that President Aliyev has Genocidal intentions: he has knowingly, willingly and voluntarily blockaded the Lachin Corridor even after having been placed on notice regarding the consequences of his actions by the ICJ’s provisional orders,” the founding prosecutor of the International Criminal Court wrote in his conclusion.
Official Baku has not yet commented on the expert opinion provided by Ocampo at the request of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leader Arayik Harutiunian.
Meanwhile, Harutiunian on August 8 issued an urgent appeal to the international community, asking for immediate action to lift the blockade imposed by Azerbaijan and prevent what he called “the genocide of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.”