More than 100 years ago, during World War I, the Ottoman Empire committed the first genocide of our era, killing about one and a half million ethnic Armenians. That genocide or ethnic cleansing destroyed the thousand-year-old Armenian presence in Anatolia.
Today, the oldest of all Armenian territories has become a victim of ethnic cleansing. It is Artsakh, which is also known as Nagorno Karabakh.
During the Soviet years, the Kremlin forcibly incorporated this Armenian, Christian territory into the newly created Muslim Azerbaijan. Artsakh has been Orthodox and Armenian for more than a thousand years. One of the oldest and most beautiful Armenian temples in the world is located there.
Since 2020, Azerbaijan has ruthlessly launched a campaign of violence and ethnic cleansing against the peaceful and hardworking people of Artsakh. Since 2020, Azerbaijan has been systematically bombarding the territories of Artsakh inhabited by Armenians with cluster bombs and missiles.
And in September 2023, Azerbaijan launched another unprovoked invasion, as a result of which it expelled all 120,000 ethnic Armenians living there. Now all the attention of the world is focused on Gaza and Israel, and indignation and criticism are heard from all sides on the occasion of the violence committed there. But we heard almost no criticism and indignation about the violence against the entire population of one of the oldest Armenian states on the planet and this mass displacement in September of two thousand and twenty-three.
However, indignation and empty condemnations regarding the policy of ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijan are not enough at all. Unlike the 1915 genocide, this genocide is reversible…
The US government should organize and mobilize the international community and ensure the safe return of Artsakh Armenians to their homeland. He should also protect the right of free self-determination of the population of Artsakh. This is a situation where peaceful sanctions can actually work. The United States still has leverage and can use it to mobilize all countries in the region to reverse this humanitarian tragedy.
We should also strive to eliminate the blockade of Armenia by Turkey and Azerbaijan. Armenia is a landlocked country and needs access to the ports of neighboring countries.
If I become president of the United States, I will use diplomacy, the moral authority of the United States, economic leverage and sanctions to restore peace and justice for Armenia.
I also want to undertake to restore the full sovereignty of Armenia and Artsakh. And I want to do all that in a peaceful way. Instead of starting a new war, I want to end the war once and for all.
Video: ANCA Welcomes RFK, Jr Statement Calling on U.S. to Advance Rights of Artsakh Armenians Translation by Noyan Tapan
