FeaturesLast month, the self-declared independent republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) lowered its flag, opting to dissolve all state institutions following a months-long blockade by Azerbaijani forces that brought about an acute humanitarian crisis among its predominantly ethnic Armenian population. The republic’s demise was the culmination of decades of tension and periods of conflict between Azerbaijan and the ethnic-Armenian enclave, paired with its supporters in Yerevan.
Leading up to this decision, JURIST Managing Editor for Interviews James Joseph interviewed Baroness Caroline Cox — founder of the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART) and Crossbench Peer in the UK House of Lords — to learn more about the situation on the ground in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh and its recent military offensive, highlighting the region’s long history of oppression and persecution. Baroness Cox told JURIST at the time that Azerbaijan was committing war crimes against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh with impunity, raising concerns about Azerbaijan using cluster bombs against civilians and expressing skepticism on ideas that an international peacekeeping mission would be deployed to stop the atrocities.
JURIST: Could you share some insights into your knowledge of the general situation in Nagorno-Karabakh based on your work in the region?
Baroness Cox: The Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust was founded to work for victims of oppression and persecution, who are largely unreached by major aid organisations, either for political or security reasons, and Nagorno-Karabakh being an enclave within Azerbaijan, historically Armenian of course (some of the most ancient Armenian shrines and churches and proofs of Armenian existence exist in that little land mass in Nagorno-Karabakh), and we’ve been involved with that since the 1990s.
When I first became involved in this kind of work, Azerbaijan has been threatening the Armenians living in Nagorno Karabakh, and that threat has turned into much more serious interventions recently. In 2020, there was a war which erupted in that area, known as the Second Nagorno-Karbakh War, and many Armenians were killed in some areas, and quite a large part of Nagorno-Karabakh was occupied by Azerbaijan, which has been in Azerbaijan since then. There are reports it has destroyed at least one church and may well have destroyed others, but of course, access is difficult.
And then more recently, in December last year, Azerbaijan began a serious offensive against the Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh. The one route of access for the provision of aid and medical supplies, food supplies etc. from Armenia into Nagorno-Karabakh is called the Lachine corridor, and it is the one road that is widely used for the delivery of supplies, and Azerbaijan began blocking that in December last year. And that has led to obviously serious problems within Nagorno-Karabakh, and these have escalated … [W]e were speaking to our colleagues in the Karabakh earlier last week, and they said that starvation was really beginning to hit. One person already died of starvation. There was no bread and so the situation was very, very serious then, but as before, military offensives escalated in the latter part of last week, and Azerbaijan is shelling civilian targets, townships, and there are reports, I can’t prove these reports, but as a result of that shelling about 500 Armenians were killed. But certainly, there were a significant number killed and many wounded. And there has been a serious dislocation of people; they’ve had to flee from their village. And so there’s been dislocation and there is now a very serious situation, which we hear about from the point of view of starvation, lack of central supplies, medical and food supplies, but also the killing of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh has recurred and is causing serious problems and serious dislocation. … The possibility of the word genocide has been used because [if] the Armenians are not able to get out … then it could turn into a potential genocide, and that’s deeply worrying.
JURIST: Do you believe that the warning signs were there all along, and that we failed to act on them?
Baroness Cox: So for as long as it goes, with impunity for a long time, [Azerbaijan] carried out what can be deemed to be crimes against humanity against the Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh with complete impunity, and one example of that which is not featured in regular reports or recent reports … is they use cluster bombs against civilians, and that is designated as a war crime and crime against humanity. They got away with that with complete impunity. And one of the worrying things which I find, which I’ve spoken about, is the extent to which I suppose one does it with impunity. And the reason for that, and I can only speculate, but there’s some corroborative suggestions that it is true. .. [A] lot of countries which maybe should be calling Azerbaijan to account have interest in Azerbaijan and are therefore reluctant to call them to account, and there’s one example which I have quizzed on for, perhaps ruined so it’s no longer in confidence, but I think it says it or it sums it up. Very, very well, way back in the 1990s.
Because see, these problems have been going on for a long time. I suppose Azerbaijan has been using cluster bombs against civilians. And I raised this on the floor of the House of Lords. So I raised this with a senior person in the foreign office … about the photographs of children killed by cluster bombs in this real war crime against humanity. I didn’t mention any names because [it was] an unofficial briefing, but I showed the photographs of the children shredded by cluster bombs, and I said “Azerbaijan is using cluster bombs against civilians. That’s a crime against humanity. It’s against international law, it’s potentially a war crime.” When the British government made representations to Azerbaijan to ask them to stop dropping cluster bombs on civilians the Foreign Office responded saying “No country has an interest in other countries, the only interests we have are oil interest in Azerbaijan. Good morning, and goodbye.” And I was just so mortified; I was trained to be British. I’m not naive. I can understand oil interest. I can understand commercial interest, but I don’t think it’s the long-term interest of any nation that is bitterly concerned to put oil before humanitarian concerns as the British have in this case. The majority of British people would not care about the price of filling up their car if they knew that such interests funded the deaths of children. This is the context of impunity, and I think we see that impunity continuing today.
JURIST: You raised this in the House of Lords on Thursday 21 September 2023. And your colleague Lord Alton also spoke about the international peacekeeping mission in this session and whether there would be one set up and a mandate required to establish a monitor to monitor the war crimes and genocide that’s going on. Have you any insight into that mechanism or into if that’s unfolding, or whether that’s happening?
Baroness Cox: Well, from where I am, I don’t see any signs of it happening. I knew that the arguments made for it, but I didn’t see any tangible evidence of that happening. And as it is probably not new, where it hopes it may happen, because one hopes that people will no longer get away with impunity, and they’re carrying out atrocities. Now, the killings of civilians, and their reports, you know, destruction of homes that you can use for civilians. There are also reports of the torture of some civilians. I can’t verify that, but it certainly happened in the past. And that impunity just seems to be continuing and I just hope the international community will coordinate by trying to account and stop these horrendous sufferings inflicted on the Armenian people in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Following Artsakh’s announcement that it will dissolve by January 1, 2024, JURIST reached out to Baroness Cox for a follow-up comment. She replied:
Although Artsakh is recognized as part of Azerbaijan by the international community, its commitment to its Armenian and Christian traditions has been widely recognized, and the enforced ethnic cleansing of the Armenians who have lived there for centuries has been designated a “war crime.” There must be no impunity for these brutal policies and the perpetrators must be held to account.
