Global actors should not offer too little, too late for Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh

"We are alarmed and gravely concerned by the unchallenged forced displacement of the entire Armenian people from their historic land in Artsakh Nagorno-Karabakh. Over the last nine months since the start of the blockade and the total siege that followed in June, we have been appealing and warning international stakeholders to not just act when it is too late. On September 19, Azerbaijan launched a strategic, comprehensive, and violent military campaign against historic Armenian villages and cities in Artsakh Nagorno-Karabakh.

The ZP Public Office stands by this historic Armenian community and will continue to play a vital role in ensuring justice and accountability. We will remain steadfast in supporting fact finding missions with scientific methods, documenting crimes of genocide centered around survivors, and advocating for the safe and immediate release of Armenian prisoners being wrongfully detained in Azerbaijan.

It greatly saddens us that much of this situation could have been avoided had the world prioritized and raised more than just calls of concern against the starvation, weaponization of aid, and incessant punishing oppression of 120,000 indigenous Armenians. We failed to move mountains, and as such, we have failed an entire people that knows all too well what life is like in the face of genocide.

We will not accept the denial of right of return and the obliteration of Armenian identity, culture, and heritage from this land. To be very clear, just because today there are no more Armenians in Artsakh Nagorno-Karabakh does not make this land no longer Armenian.

We will not accept the denial of right of return and the obliteration of Armenian identity, culture, and heritage from this land. To be very clear, just because today there are no more Armenians in Artsakh Nagorno-Karabakh does not make this land no longer Armenian."

[End of statement]

Lynn Zovighian

Founder, Zovighian Public Office