Karabakh blockade is genocide, says ex-ICC prosecutor

By Mark Dovich

“There is a reasonable basis to believe that a Genocide is being committed against Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023.” That is the conclusion by Luis Moreno Ocampo, a leading international law specialist and a former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court.

In an expert opinion published earlier this week, Moreno Ocampo said Azerbaijan’s ongoing blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh should be considered a genocide under the United Nations Genocide Convention, noting that “starvation is the invisible Genocide weapon.”

Azerbaijan’s nearly eight-month blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh has led to a major humanitarian crisis in the region and has pushed more than 100,000 Armenians to the brink of famine. CivilNet’s Nagorno-Karabakh team has reported severe and widespread shortages of food, energy, medicine, and other essentials.

Moreno Ocampo noted that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev “cannot be investigated (on allegations of committing genocide) by any foreign national authorities because he enjoys immunity as a head of state.” However, such immunity does not apply at the ICC.

Because Azerbaijan, as well as Armenia, has not joined the ICC, the only way to start an ICC investigation into allegations of genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh would be to have the UN Security Council refer the matter to the court.

In the meantime, Moreno Ocampo called for the European Union, Russia, and the United States to use their “privileged position” in ongoing regional peace talks to pressure Azerbaijan to lift the blockade. The “intense confrontation (between the West and Russia) due to the Ukrainian conflict should not transform the Armenians into collateral victims,” he wrote.

Read the full report here