Genocide based on values

According to experts, genocide is being threatened in Nagorno-Karabakh by the government of Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus. The federal government is currently expanding its decades-long close cooperation with the latter.

A former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) accuses Azerbaijan, a close cooperation partner of Germany, of genocide against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. As Luis Moreno Ocampo, who worked for the ICC from 2003 to 2012, judges, the de facto blockade of the internationally unrecognized republic implemented by Baku since the end of 2022 means that it can no longer be supplied with food and medicine; Moreno Ocampo complains that Azerbaijan is using starvation against the local population.

Their situation is indeed bleak; the first deaths from hunger appear. Azerbaijan has been cooperating closely with Germany for years and recently agreed to increase its natural gas supplies to Western Europe from about 12 to 20 billion cubic meters per year. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently classified the country as a “partner of growing importance“. As Baku cuts off supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh, an EU police unit led by a German police officer is monitoring the situation on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Baku’s cooperation with NATO is also close.

Threatened with genocide

Azerbaijan has been blocking the separatist Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) since last December. In fact, Russian soldiers were supposed to secure the Lachin Corridor, the last remaining transport route between the de facto republic, which is mostly inhabited by Armenians and is not recognized internationally, and the Republic of Armenia, which is informally allied with Artsakh. However, the Russian contingent was drastically reduced after the start of the war in Ukraine last February.

In February, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Azerbaijan to lift the blockade; however, the government in Baku did not implement this. In early August, the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (IGStH), Luis Moreno Ocampo, published an opinion in which he classified Azerbaijan’s actions as genocide using the “invisible weapon” of hunger.

Hunger as a weapon

The situation of the people of Artsakh is indeed dramatic. Because of the blockade, some 120,000 people in the de facto republic lack food and medicine, among other supplies. No aid from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has reached the area since mid-June; most recently, no emergency medical transport could cross the Latschin Corridor. There is no longer medical care for about 2,000 pregnant women, and pharmacies are empty. In mid-August, the Armenian foreign minister reported the first deaths from starvation in Artsakh; The president of the unrecognized republic, who has since resigned, said last week that one in three deaths in the region is now due to malnutrition.

“Partners of growing importance”

Due to the German government’s complicity with Azerbaijan, German opposition politician Dustin Hoffmann (The Party) recently wrote about a “values-based genocide” on the short messaging service X (formerly: Twitter). German cooperation with the authoritarian Petro regime in Baku dates back decades and was recently strengthened by the current chancellor. At a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in March this year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) called Azerbaijan an “increasingly important partner“. At the meeting, the Azeri leader promised that his country would deliver 20 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Western Europe every year; the current delivery volume is approximately 12 billion cubic meters. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the importance of Azerbaijan for the Federal Republic as a supplier of natural gas has increased. Instead, the government in Berlin ignores the Armenian-Azeri policy.

EU mediation

In the context of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, the EU has been trying since last year to play a stronger role in the Caucasus through mediation. This has yielded no breakthroughs so far; On the contrary: European Council President Charles Michel, who acts as a mediator for the EU, is said to only be after a Nobel Peace Prize. In doing so, he is advocating a negotiated solution that ultimately amounts to legalizing the “ethnic cleansing” of Artsakh’s Armenians: Baku wants to drive out the younger part of the population, it says, while a small number of older people should to stay. ago, so that the Azerbaijani government can claim to “take care” of the Armenian minority. So while the German government is straining relations with the Azeri government, the EU appears to be covering “ethnic cleansing” through negotiations at the same time.

EU operations

In an effort to position itself as a force of law and order in the Caucasus, the EU has now launched several operations in Armenia. In October, the 40-person EU Monitoring Capacity in Armenia began monitoring the Armenian-Azerbaijani border from the Armenian side. In October, the Foreign Office announced that it also planned to send German observers from November. Then, in December 2022, the short-term EU planning assistance team from Armenia set off for the Caucasus. Again, shortly thereafter, starting in January of this year, the EU sent the European Union Mission to Armenia (EUMA). The head of a unit of more than 100 police officers and support staff is German Federal Police Officer Markus Ritter. As the German government improves political and economic relations with Azerbaijan, a police force led by a federal police officer is stationed on the Armenian side of the border to protect Armenia from Azeri attacks.

“NATO Shield”

Not only Berlin has maintained close political and economic ties with Baku for decades. Since 1992, Azerbaijan has also maintained official relations with NATO. Due to its close ties with Turkey, the Azeri Petro regime benefits from an informal “NATO umbrella of protection“. Azerbaijan also has close ties with Albania, which joined the Western military alliance in 2009. Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev said in July that Albanian-Azerbaijani relations were “excellent“.

Contacts between NATO headquarters in Brussels and the authoritarian government in Baku have increased since the start of the war in Ukraine last spring. It is not currently seeking to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but is one of the most active partner countries in various NATO formats for non-member states. As part of the cooperation, a delegation of Azerbaijani soldiers was in Germany at the end of August and took part in talks with Bundeswehr soldiers.

“The Three Brothers”

From a geostrategic point of view, Azerbaijan is particularly relevant to the West due to its alliance policy. Azerbaijan is part of a coalition of states informally called “the three brothers“. In addition to the Caucasus country, it consists of NATO member Turkey and South Asia’s Pakistan. Pakistan, sometimes a close partner of the Federal Republic of Germany since the 1950s, did not recognize Armenia’s independence in 1991, has conducted joint military exercises with Azerbaijan since 2016, and has reportedly even sent military observers to the country. during the fall 2020 war between Armenia and the Karabakh conflict region of Azerbaijan. Germany has maintained close ties with all “three brothers” for many years.

A new actor

Germany’s close cooperation with Azerbaijan complicates an improvement in German-Armenian relations. When neoliberal Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took office five years ago, there were hopes in Western Europe that Armenia would move closer to the EU and NATO in the future. The federal foreign minister at the time, Heiko Maas (SPD), said that Berlin viewed Pashinyan’s assumption of government “with great goodwill“.

However, NATO’s close alliance with Azerbaijan stood in the way of such a development. Instead, India has been trying for several years to exert political, economic and military influence in the South Caucasus. In 2020, the South Asian superpower began exporting arms to Armenia and supplied the government in Yerevan with radar and missile systems. The Azerbaijani government labeled this an “unfriendly gesture“, claiming that Indian arms sales to Armenia paved the way for the “militarization” of Armenia and prevented “the establishment of a lasting peace in the South Caucasus“.

Given Armenia’s traditionally good relations with Russia and Iran, and recently strengthened relations with China and India, the potential for stronger EU and therefore German influence in the country is low.

 

yogaesoteric
October 18, 2023