16.12.2022


While in many corners of the world, people are preparing to celebrate Christmas and the New Year, December of 2022 became yet another disastrous month for 120k Artsakh Armenians (of which 30K kids). It is the second time this month that the regime of Baku has blocked the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting the Artsakh Armenians to the world. The Lachin Corridor is a road connecting Artsakh to Armenia. The Russian peacekeeping force is responsible for it in accordance with the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh agreement signed on November 9 by the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan and the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.

The second blockade of the Corridor began on December 12 when so-called Azerbaijani "environmentalists" started their protests, closing the road near the city of Shushi (a part of Nagorno-Karabakh that is now under Azerbaijani control). The reality is, however, that covered by the "environmentalist" rhetoric, the Azerbaijani government cut the road creating a high risk of ethnic cleansing and yet another humanitarian crisis. In reality, the so-called "eco-activists" are soldiers of the Azerbaijani army or members of organizations financed by the Aliyev regime [1].

In this challenging situation, many started talking about the possible genocide or ethnic cleansing of Artsakh Armenians by the government of Azerbaijan [2]. Among them was the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, who, in his opening remarks at the 4th Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide, mentioned three possible scenarios that Azerbaijan can use for its genocidal intentions [3]. "The Lachin Corridor is a genocide prevention corridor. To close that Corridor, to stop the activity of that Corridor, means to condemn the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)] to genocide [by Azerbaijan] in three different scenarios," said Pashinyan.

One can ask whether this is an actual situation when we can witness another genocide. My answer to this will be my recent article, "The rhetorical face of enmity: the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the dehumanization of Armenians in the speeches by Ilham Aliyev," published in peer-reviewed high-ranked journal Southeast European and Black Sea Studies [4]. Examining Aliyev's lexicon uncovered three main components of the dehumanization and toxification of Armenians. The first one was the identification of Armenians as the sole menace for Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis. In the second, Armenians are depicted as non-human and barbaric in essence. This conclusion pushes the Azerbaijani side to leave the hopes of resolving the issues through negotiations since the other side is not conscious or rational. Hence, it is a threat that should be dealt with by force. The third component is the role of the Azerbaijani army, which is the tool that can perpetrate the needed violence. I argue that this phase can be accepted as the final stage of toxification, where the sense of self-superiority and the belief in the need to eliminate the enemy give birth to a high level of violence. While the head of state orchestrates toxification, its reinforcement is put on the shoulders of others, from state officials to ordinary people.

The blockade of the Lachin Corridor by the Azerbaijani "eco-activists" is a proof of my conclusion about the reinforcement of Aliyev's dehumanization, where the possibility of ethnic cleansing and genocide becomes more than possible. This is also proved by choice of these "eco-activists" and the symbolism they demonstrate. Two cases are especially provable. The first one is the participation in these activities by the army members to whom Ramil Safarov is a hero. During a NATO-sponsored seminar in Budapest, Ramil Safarov broke into the room of Armenian Army Lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan and axed him to death while he was asleep. Later, Safarov became of hero in Azerbaijan. At least one of the participants of the blockade of Lachin Corridor has a picture with Safarov [5]. The second is the "Grey Wolves" sign that the "eco-activists" demonstrate. The Grey Wolves is a Turkish ultra-nationalist, a far-right group responsible for acts of violence against ethnic minority groups in Turkey. The organization is banned in many European countries [6].

During his two-decade-long reign, Ilham Aliyev dehumanized Armenians sowing the seeds of genocidal activities among his population. The willingness of these "eco-activists" to block the Corridor without even thinking about the suffering they cause, is a vivid proof of this. While these people are dancing and closing the Humanitarian Corridor, many Artsakh Armenians, with the need for hospitalization to the Yerevan clinics, are dying. The world powers started twitting their concerns demanding Azerbaijan to open the road, clearly indicating who is responsible for the closure. Will this help to prevent another atrocity? In my view, voicing concerns is not enough; for the Aliyev regime, with a long history of human rights violations and cultural destruction, only sanctions can be a mean to prevent the genocide.

Naira Sahakyan, PhD
Senior Researcher, Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute

[1] Who really are Azerbaijan’s ‘environmental activists’ blockading Karabakh? https://www.civilnet.am/en/news/686152/who-really-are-azerbaijans-environmental-activists-blockading-karabakh/amp/

[2] Azerbaijan’s genocidal blockade of Artsakh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPmEhMNivlY&ab_channel=CIVILNET

[3] Armenia’s Pashinyan speaks about genocide in 3 scenarios: Lachin Corridor is Genocide prevention corridor https://news.am/eng/news/734542.html

[4] Naira Sahakyan (2022) The rhetorical face of enmity: the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the dehumanization of Armenians in the speeches by Ilham Aliyev, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, DOI: 10.1080/14683857.2022.2153402

[5] “Pictures from the twitter page of Telman Qasimov, one of the leaders of Azerbaijani “environmental activists”, blocking the only humanitarian corridor from Armenia to Nagorno Karabakh” Read more at: https://www.aravot-en.am/2022/12/13/315921/

[6] Who really are Azerbaijan’s ‘environmental activists’ blockading Karabakh? https://www.civilnet.am/en/news/686152/who-really-are-azerbaijans-environmental-activists-blockading-karabakh/amp/