Monday, April 24 2023 13:36

ArmInfo. On 24 April, Armenians around the world commemorate the more than 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide committed in the Ottoman Empire. In 1915-1923, the Young Turks and the Kemalist Government, in several stages, carried out mass atrocities and deportation of Armenians.

The Armenian Genocide was part of the Pan-Turkist policy pursued by the  leaders of the Ottoman Empire, which envisaged the occupation of new  territories through massacres, turkisation or forced displacement of  native Christian Armenians. This is stated in the statement of the  Artsakh Foreign Ministry in connection with the 108th anniversary of  the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.  

"The inability to prevent the first Genocide of the 20th century and  its impunity, unfortunately, subsequently led to new genocides. Even  today, more than a century after this horrific crime, the Armenian  people are again facing the threat of a new Genocide. The  authoritarian regime of Azerbaijan, supported by Turkey, continues to  pursue a genocidal policy against the Armenians. A clear proof of  this is Turkey's unconcealed support and direct participation in the  military aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh in  September 2020. During the 44-day war of aggression, a significant  part of the territory of the Republic of Artsakh was occupied,  numerous war crimes and gross violations of international  humanitarian law were committed, including brutal murder of civilians  and prisoners of war, beheadings, desecration of dead bodies and many  other inhumane acts.  

Continuing its plans of ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, Azerbaijan has  been keeping the 120,000 people of Artsakh under siege for more than  4 months,  putting them in a dilemma: to be exterminated or forced to  leave their homeland. At the same time, in order to promote its  genocidal policy, Azerbaijan continues to violate the fundamental  rights of the people of Artsakh by all possible means in front of the  eyes of the international community and in an environment of complete  impunity and permissiveness.  

Since the Armenian Genocide in 1915, the international community has  made a commitment and developed an appropriate toolkit to prevent  Genocides and massive violations of human rights in order to prevent  their recurrence. Today, it is imperative for the UN Security Council  to use that toolkit to prevent the destruction of the people of  Artsakh as such and to protect their fundamental rights.  

Once again honouring the memory of the holy martyrs of the Armenian  Genocide, we reaffirm our commitment to the struggle for the  restoration of historical justice," the statement of the NKR MFA  concluded.