Reports

Atrocities Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) -- Webpage archive

Phillips, David L.

In the fall of 2020, in response to unprovoked attacks against the Armenians in Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh, I undertook a research and documentation project in cooperation with Columbia University and the Artsakh Human Rights Ombudsman Office. This aggression, known as the “Forty-Four Day War”, ended on November 10 with the signing of a trilateral statement between Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia. The Artsakh Atrocities Project documents Azerbaijan’s “systematic effort to drive Armenians from their homeland through killings, ethnic cleansing and deportations” that constitutes crimes against humanity, as well as other atrocities committed by Azerbaijani armed forces and nearly 2,000 Turkish-backed Islamist fighters.

More than 3,900 Armenians died during the 44-day war beginning on September 27, 2020 and over 100,000 civilians were displaced by constant shelling. The dossier includes: (i) reports issued by the Ombudsman on Human Rights in Artsakh and reports by other reputable human rights sources; (ii) news articles and opinion pieces covering the events; (iii) password-protected videos (with gruesome imagery); (iv) targeting culture; (v) humanitarian agencies involved in the conflict; (vi) information on hate crimes in the West; (vii) perpetrators of the conflict and war crimes; and (viii) information on Armenian prisoners of war still held by Azerbaijan. There are numerous verified cases of Azerbaijani soldiers mutilating dead bodies, beheading and executing both combatants and civilians, and using banned weapons (e.g. cluster bombs, white phosphorus gas).

Since December 12, 2022, Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor connecting Artsakh with Armenia has placed the population of Nagorno Karabakh under siege, depriving Armenians of external contact and precipitating a humanitarian emergency. These events constitute the “Second Armenian Genocide”. With the blockade tightening, there is ample evidence of the Aliyev regime’s genocidal intent.

The documentation project was undertaken as a deterrent to future crimes. It bears witness to crimes against humanity and preserves evidence to hold perpetrators accountable. The information provided on these pages is in both HTML and PDF formats.

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More About This Work

Academic Units
Institute for the Study of Human Rights
Published Here
August 22, 2023