Armenian Assembly of America urges decisive U.S. leadership to stop  the bloodshed in Karabakh

ArmInfo.Today, the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) urged decisive U.S.   leadership to stop the bloodshed and bring an end to the war launched  against the Armenian people by Azerbaijan with the direct support of  Turkey and the importation of jihadists, the statement of the  Assembly received by ArmInfo reads. 

''Azerbaijan has spent billions trying to whitewash its abysmal human  rights record. Now, in the most blatant attempt since Operation Ring  in 1991, when it ethnically cleansed nearly half of Nagorno-Karabakh  of its Armenian population, and with the explicit support of Turkey  and the importation of jihadist mercenaries, Azerbaijan along with  Turkey are engaged in an attempted genocide of Armenian Christians -  again," stated Assembly Co-Chairs Anthony Barsamian and Van  Krikorian. "This is a fundamental question of genocide prevention and  the Genocide Convention must be invoked."

Article I of the Genocide Convention obligates parties to prevent  Genocide. Article III forbids even attempts at Genocide, and Article  VII makes clear that Genocide is not a "political crime." Most  genocides take place during war conditions. Hence, this does not  excuse the Aliyev and Erdogan regimes, especially since they violated  the humanitarian cease-fire and admitted to seeking a military  solution by removing all the Armenians.

"Yesterday, Secretary of State Pompeo remarked that the United States  is 'hopeful that the Armenians will be able to defend against what  the Azerbaijanis are doing,'" stated Barsamian and Van Krikorian. "If  that is indeed what the United States is hoping for, then it is  incumbent on the U.S. government to do something about it. The  Administration needs to act now to save lives. This starts with fully  enforcing Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act and sanctioning  Turkey," the Co-Chairs continued.

Without firm economic and diplomatic pressure, Turkey will not pull  back. There can no longer be any doubt about Azerbaijan and Turkey's  true intentions: to write another chapter in the expulsion and  deportation of the Armenian people from another portion of its  historic homeland where they formed the first Christian nation on  earth.

As reported in today's article in The National Interest by David  Phillips, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at  least 1,600 mercenaries have been deployed from Syria and Libya to  Nagorno-Karabakh. They are affiliated with ISIS, Al-Nusra, Ahrar  al-Sham, and factions of the Syrian National Army - Sultan Murad,  Suleyman Shah, and Hamza factions, which are notorious for committing  atrocities and crimes against humanity including sexual violence."

The Armenian Assembly also condemns the Azerbaijani execution of  Armenian POWs, a heinous war crime. A gruesome viral video captured  the moment when Azerbaijani troops taunt and open fire on two  Armenian POWs. The cruel and inhumane act is a flagrant violation of  international law. Nor is this the first such case of war crimes.   Just last week, Armenian churches and heritage sites were targets of  Azerbaijani shelling.

The conflict occurring today is the product of Turkish President  Erdogan's ambitions for regional dominance. His neo-Ottoman policies  have revived the methods of the murderous Young Turks of 1915.   Populations across the entire region are paying the price of his  untrammeled expansionism. Azerbaijani military forces, officered by  Turkish army command, are targeting Armenian civilians in  Nagorno-Karabakh by shelling villages, churches and other  non-military sites with ballistic missiles and internationally banned  cluster munitions. Turkey has brought jihadists from Syria and Libya  to join the fight. They have deliberately injected these militant  Islamists and terrorists into the Caucasus region. Both Turkey and  Azerbaijan have turned away from global calls for peace and are  censoring media from reporting the full truth at the front lines.

Erdogan's grandiose vision of reestablishing a Turkish-led Islamic  empire, like the Ottomans of a century ago, cannot be tolerated.   Armenians know the true meaning of jihad. They survived its  atrocities in the genocide of 1915 at the cost of 1.5 million lives.   A similar humanitarian crisis is unfolding today, and the execution  of Armenian POWs has brought the threat of another Armenian genocide  that much closer. The Azerbaijanis and Turks deliberately planned  this attack while America is distracted with the November 3rd  presidential election and the world is responding to the global  pandemic. This should be a concern to Christians everywhere.  The  Armenian Assembly of America calls on all good people in the United  States and around the world to act immediately to save lives.