A Christian advocacy group is urging President Biden to intervene in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to prevent a possible genocide from taking place.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars in the past 30 years over Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but home to a large Armenian population in the Caucasus Mountains. Tensions have soared between the two ex-Soviet neighbors over the blockade of the only road that gives direct access to Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia.
In a letter sent to President Biden on Wednesday morning, the Philos Project supported calls by the Armenian National Committee of America for US intervention to prevent Azerbaijan from persecuting Christians in the region as conflict continues between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“Day by day, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh grows more dire as routine shipments of basic supplies, medicine and food on which the region is completely dependent remain completely shut down, save for a handful of humanitarian convoys from the Cross International Red”, said the indicated letter. “Soon the situation will become untenable for the 120,000 Armenians” in the region.
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The Philos Project has urged the Biden administration to “put human rights at the center of its foreign policy” and to “accomplish” its recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire and “avoid a second Armenian Genocide by taking decisive action now.” . .”
“Though thinly disguised as the work of eco-activists protesting mining operations, the intent of the blockade was exposed by President Aliyev’s offer that the way out was open to any Armenian who wanted to leave,” the letter emphasizes. . “Ethnic cleansing… not eco-activism.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, top left, speaks during a meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Aziz oglu Bayramov and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan at Blair House, Monday, April 7. November 2022 in Washington.
(Alex Brandon/Pool via Reuters)
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev denied that the Lachin corridor, which links Nagorno-Karabk with Armenia, was subject to a blockade, insisting instead that officials in the region had to halt a mining project which is the main reason of the traffic disruption, Reuters reported.
The Azerbaijani Embassy in the US did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital by press time.
During an Orthodox Christmas speech this month, Aliyev rejected the accusations, saying that Azerbaijan is “a homeland for everyone who lives here, regardless of their language, religion and ethnicity. The relations of friendship and brotherhood between separate peoples and religions, which They are based on mutual respect and trust, they have established themselves in our country, where a high culture of coexistence reigns”.
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Azerbaijan’s constitution also emphasizes that the government cannot interfere in religious activities, empowering both the government and citizens to combat “religious extremism” and “radicalism,” specifically giving the government the power to dissolve religious organizations that cause racial, national, religious or social animosity. according to a 2022 report from the US State Department.
Russia has said that “hard and hard work continues with both Armenia and Azerbaijan” to resolve the dispute and the blockade, but European officials criticized Moscow for a general passivity on the issue that has allowed it to play out to this point.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Azerbaijan’s president on Monday to redouble efforts to reach a peace deal with Armenia, but human rights groups have begun calling on Biden to do more.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, center, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, left, and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attend a news conference following their meeting to discuss the implementation of the ceasefire on fire in Nagorno-Karabakh reached on November 9 and measures to resolve problems in the region. , in Moscow on January 11, 2021.
(Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via Reuters)
“Azerbaijan is taking advantage of a distracted Russia to force the remaining Armenians out of Nagorno-Karabakh,” Sam Brownback, a former US ambassador general for International Religious Freedom, told Fox News Digital. “This blockade is aimed at making Nagorno-Karabakh uninhabitable for this ancient, mostly Christian population.”
“The United States, Europe and the rest of the world must not allow this to happen,” he added. “The blockade must end quickly and not be repeated.”
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The Armenian National Committee of America published on its website the 14 genocide risk factors tracked by the United Nations that are now present in the region. The group accused the Azerbaijani government of promoting official hatred and impunity for atrocities committed against Armenians in the region.
Estonian MEP Marina Kaljurand urged Azerbaijan to also refrain from using “high-level inflammatory rhetoric”, which helped discriminate against Armenians, and the European Parliament has called on the Azerbaijani government to lift the blockade, but so far no there have been signs of change. , according to Open Democracy.
A view shows the town of Taghavard in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, on January 16, 2021.
(Reuters/Artem Mikryukov/File photo)
Bashir Kitachayev, a freelance journalist from Azerbaijan who focuses on the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict, wrote that any Armenian in the region who took Azerbaijani citizenship would face “rampant anti-Armenian sentiment, or Armenophobia, fueled by the state.”
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“The country must take real steps towards democracy and reject a national-patriotic identity based on hatred of Armenians,” Kitachayev wrote, criticizing the government for “exacerbating a humanitarian crisis… when it could be creating conditions for peace.” .
Reuters contributed to this report.
