On July 29, 2023, the President of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Arayik Harutyunyan, sent a letter to Luis Moreno Ocampo, a leading specialist in international law, former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and lecturer at Harvard and Yale universities, asking for an expert opinion on whether the deepening blockade of Artsakh corresponds to the crime of genocide. It is stated in the letter, particularly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs the President of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), I request your expert opinion regarding the current situation of 120,000 Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. We considered that your practice as the founder Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (2003-2012), particularly your request to issue an arrest warrant for Genocide against the President of Sudan, would be relevant to provide us with the information required. We need your opinion on three questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“a) Could it be considered that the blockade of our people by Azerbaijan since December 12, 2022, and especially the blockage of all kinds of humanitarian assistance to Nagorno-Karabakh implemented since June 15, 2023, constitutes the crime of genocide?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“b) Has the International Criminal Court jurisdiction on the matter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“c) Who could be personally responsible? Please consider this as an urgent request, given the deteriorating humanitarian and security situation in my country daily and the growing sufferings of my people. I am attaching a report providing relevant information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an interview with Artsakhpress,\u00a0Lusine Avanesyan, the\u00a0press secretary\u00a0of the Artsakh Republic President said that Mr. Ocampo has sent a reply letter to the President, in which he specifically wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
”Dear President of the Artsakh Republic Arayik Harutyunyan<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThank you very much for your request to provide my opinion regarding the current situation of Nagorno-Karabakh. It would be my honor to analyze the problem and provide you with my conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI will prepare a comprehensive report analyzing the facts and the law. My assessment will be impartial and produced on a pro bono basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo reach a conclusion regarding the commission of genocide, I must analyze the Azerbaijan leaders\u2019 intentions. The intention could be deduced from the facts, but to safeguard my accuracy and impartiality, I will write to the Azerbaijan President offering him the opportunity to clarify his position directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGiven the situation\u2019s urgency and the risk of starvation for 120.000 Armenians, I plan to issue my report in 7 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPlease don\u2019t hesitate to communicate any new circumstance that could affect the situation in analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yours, Luis Moreno Ocampo”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia and the rest of the world, has been blocked by Azerbaijan since late 2022. The Azerbaijani blockade constitutes a gross violation of the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh ceasefire agreement, which established that the 5km-wide Lachin Corridor shall be under the control of Russian peacekeepers. Furthermore, on February 22, 2023, the United Nations\u2019 highest court \u2013 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) \u2013 ordered Azerbaijan to \u201ctake all steps at its disposal\u201d to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles, and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions. \u00a0Azerbaijan has been ignoring the order ever since. Moreover, Azerbaijan then illegally installed a checkpoint on the Lachin Corridor. The blockade has led to shortages of essential products such as food and medication. Azerbaijan has also cut off gas and power supply into Nagorno Karabakh, with officials warning that Baku seeks to commit ethnic cleansing against Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh. Hospitals have suspended normal operations.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Artsakhpress \/ A1+<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On July 29, 2023, the President of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Arayik Harutyunyan, sent a letter to Luis Moreno Ocampo, a leading specialist in international law, former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and lecturer at Harvard and Yale universities, asking for an expert opinion on whether the deepening blockade of Artsakh corresponds […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,45,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-en","category-news-en","category-home_slide"],"acf":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2482"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2490,"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482\/revisions\/2490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsakhforum.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}