Azerbaijan’s Blockade of the Lachin Corridor: Harbinger of Another Armenian Genocide

University Experts publish briefing paper condemning widespread rights abuses fueling Azerbaijan’s blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh.

(Middletown, CT, August 24, 2023) – As the world condemns Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor, a network of human rights researchers and advocates demonstrates that recent events are only the latest in a campaign of abuses that threatens the very real possibility of another Armenian genocide.

In a briefing paper published on August 24, 2023, the University Network for Human Rights (UNHR) shows that Azerbaijan has openly committed atrocities against ethnic Armenians in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, the de facto autonomous region recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan, but historically controlled by the Armenian majority. Following the 44-Day Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, these abuses have spilled into sovereign Armenia as well.

The paper, “The Tip of the Iceberg: Understanding Azerbaijan's Blockade of the Lachin Corridor as Part of a Wider Genocidal Campaign against Ethnic Armenians,” documents pervasive rights abuses perpetrated by Azerbaijani forces since the signing of the war’s ceasefire. These include: extrajudicial killings of civilians, enforced disappearance and torture of Armenian prisoners of war, shelling of border communities, and restriction of freedom of movement – including through the Lachin Corridor – among others.

“There is no way to continue living in Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh],” a grandmother from the village of Khramort told UNHR. “They are violating human rights in every possible way, from every possible side.”

“The Tip of the Iceberg” is based on evidence gathered over the past two years during several fact-finding trips – two in Nagorno-Karabakh and four in Armenia – led by UNHR with the participation of teams from Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights, UCLA’s Promise Institute for Human Rights, Wesleyan University, and Yale's Lowenstein Project. The University Network interviewed nearly 100 victims or their family members and analyzed thousands of pages of official and media reports and statements, including those by Azerbaijani officials who have openly threatened the “complete elimination of Armenians.” 

“When leaders at the highest level, including the president, use language akin to that used in the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide while state forces torture, kill, and mutilate ethnic Armenians, concerns about ethnic cleansing and genocide are very real,” says Thomas Becker, Legal and Policy Director at UNHR.

The briefing paper, an abridged version of a more detailed report to be released in the fall, calls on Azerbaijan to open the Lachin Corridor, cease rights abuses against ethnic Armenians, and hold those who have carried out grave abuses to account. Otherwise, UNHR contends the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh could quickly escalate into another genocide.