- November 11, 2024
Washington, D.C. – Freedom House, the leading American organization devoted to the support and defense of democracy around the world, issued a report concluding that Azerbaijan ethnically cleansed Nagorno-Karabakh. The report was issued on Veterans Day, when the United States honors those who have sacrificed to defend the freedoms and liberties cherished by Americans.
The report found multiple cases of gross human rights violations, breaches of international humanitarian law, and violations of international criminal law by Azerbaijani authorities against ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, through extrajudicial killings, a months-long blockade, forced displacement, and post-displacement policies of cultural erasure and property destruction.
“The Freedom House report confirms what legal experts, human rights organizations and global leaders already knew: Azerbaijan engaged in ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Timothy Jemal, President, Global ARM. “It’s time for the U.S. and the international community to hold Azerbaijan accountable for these war crimes and seek justice for ethnic Armenians forcibly deported from their homeland.”
The report documents evidence that aligns with the definition of ethnic cleansing put forward by a UN commission of experts in the context of the former Yugoslavia. The fact-finding report also supports the conclusion that the acts documented in Nagorno-Karabakh constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report’s release comes as Baku hosts the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29), the annual UN forum on climate change.
“As world leaders gather in Baku for COP29 seeking climate justice, they have an opportunity to speak out against the injustices committed against ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. World leaders should demand that twenty-three Armenian hostages and political prisoners held in Baku be unconditionally and immediately released,” added Jemal.
Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) and Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) recently co-led a bicameral letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the State Department to press Azerbaijan for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, hostages, and POWs, including ethnic Armenians, as a prerequisite for successful diplomacy at COP29. Despite these high-level diplomatic entreaties, the number of political prisoners under President Aliyev’s regime has more than doubled from 122 in December 2021 to over 300 by June 2024, with a particular focus on detaining environmental activists ahead of COP29.
About Global ARM: Global ARM is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization formed in 2022 to implement smarter, stronger and more effective Pro-Armenia, Pro-Artsakh lobbying in Washington, D.C. Global ARM is non-partisan and not aligned with any political party or government inside or outside of Armenia.