Post by Alison T Meuse

As Armenian hostages in Baku mark more than 1,000 days in captivity, a European Parliament panel on Tuesday urged action. Joel Veldkamp of CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY INTERNATIONAL (CSI) argued that the prolonged detention of Armenian leaders from Artsakh must be understood not as an isolated legal matter, but as the final stage of Azerbaijan’s campaign to erase the Armenian community of Nagorno Karabakh. He pointed to a September 2023 interview in which an adviser to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev warned that “a genocide may happen” if Artsakh’s government did not capitulate — a threat made public just twelve days before Baku’s invasion of the territory. Lawyer Siranush Sahakyan warned that Azerbaijan’s prosecutions are designed to rewrite the history of Artsakh, criminalize its institutions, and portray the very institution of Armenian self-government as criminal. When the panel opened to questions from the audience, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s recent praise of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was raised. Co-host MEP Costas Mavrides did not spare words, telling the audience, “I cannot accept this hypocrisy anymore.” Drawing on his own history as a refugee driven from his home by the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, he turned the moment personal. “I was once a victim of aggression by the Turkish invasion and I’m a refugee,” he said. “So personally, you have the commitment of my party and political group — you will never be alone.” Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gDysXCZb