Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, Co-Founder and Co-President of the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, endowed Chair in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Keene State College, USA, highlights the role of the international community on putting pressure on Azerbaijan to refuse from genocidal intentions against Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia.
In response to the question of ARMENPRESS within the framework of the 4th Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide, Elisa von Joeden-Forgey said the international community can do a lot more than it has already done to prevent a new genocide. She said “this is a genocide that can be prevented”.
“Taking action now will, I believe, stave off another genocide against Armenians or at the very least the threat is extreme enough that these actions must be taken. Otherwise, all of our slogans of “Never Again” will hollow. The international community first and foremost needs to put pressure on Turkey and Azerbaijan so that Turkey and Azerbaijan know that they are not working in a space of impunity”, she said.
Elisa von Joeden-Forgey emphasized that the international community has to make it clear that any genocidal attacks on Armenian life whether in Artsakh, Armenia and the Diaspora will be responded to with strength, that there will be severe consequences for acts against Armenians.
“This can all be done diplomatically, it needs, however, a coordinated effort. Furthermore, all of these war crimes that we have seen, these atrocity crimes that have been committed in 2020 and again in September 2022 need to be tried in international courts as high crime. So, we need to pursue accountability for those crimes. I think that the international community could pursue sanctions, could entertain the idea of sanctions against Azerbaijan, I think some of the most important states who are working with Azerbaijan could certainly threaten to pull their economic and military aid to Azerbaijan, and I hope that the major powers of the world will take this very seriously and pursue everything that is in their diplomatic toolbox to make it clear to Turkey and Azerbaijan that they must pull back from this genocidal language that they are using to terrorize Armenians and potentially to threaten another genocide”, she stated.
