{"id":38612,"date":"2023-09-11T09:49:31","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T16:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/?p=38612"},"modified":"2023-09-11T09:49:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T16:49:32","slug":"congressman-warns-of-genocide-ethnic-cleansing-against-christians-in-armenia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/congressman-warns-of-genocide-ethnic-cleansing-against-christians-in-armenia\/","title":{"rendered":"Congressman Warns of \u2018Genocide,\u2019 \u2018Ethnic Cleansing\u2019 Against Christians in Armenia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Republican New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith called on his colleagues Wednesday to recognize that 120,000 Armenian Christians<\/a> living in Nagorno-Karabakh are facing extinction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDelay is denial,\u201d Smith, who chaired the emergency congressional hearing on Nagorno-Karabakh as co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, said in a statement to The Daily Signal. \u201cThe Biden Administration must say immediately that this is genocide\u2014and stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Capitol Hill hearing<\/a>, held Wednesday, examined the ongoing blockade of the Lachin corridor in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region between Eastern Europe<\/a> and western Asia that is referred to as the Republic of Artsakh by Armenians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The region is a disputed territory<\/a> that Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought over for several decades, and the Azerbaijani government has blockaded the Armenians since December 2022. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned<\/a> that Armenians face dire shortages of food, medical supplies, baby formula, fuel, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis blockade of the 120,000 Armenian Christians is reaching a critical juncture,\u201d warned Turkish journalist and political analyst Uzay Bulut in an August op-ed<\/a>. \u201cFood and medicine are running out, and starvation is beginning to set in. Currently, there is no fuel\u2014which has led to a complete transportation shutdown. The Armenians of Artsakh are thus being forced into submission to Azerbaijan through a policy of starvation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis crime\u2014it is the crime of genocide\u2014was planned, tested, and imposed by the government of Azerbaijan, that is to say by President Ilham Aliyev, who rules Azerbaijan as a dictator,\u201d Smith said Wednesday. The congressman has met with Aliyev twice, his office said, once in 2013 and again in 2014, to discuss his human rights abuses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is much more desperate now, and two-and-a-half more months of inaction raises the question whether there is, within our own government, any will to help,\u201d he said. \u201cIn August, when the Security Council met in special session to discuss the crisis neither the U.S. nor any other member took this action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith continued: \u201cMeanwhile, the Azerbaijani government taunts the very people it is starving, as when President Aliyev said his blockade is necessary to deal with the smuggling of cigarettes and iPhones, and Azerbaijan\u2019s ambassador to the U.N. held up photos of supposed Karabakh residents partying and enjoying the high life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith emphasized that the Biden administration does not want this genocide to end in the deaths or \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut that is exactly where events are headed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Biden administration must wake up, recognize the absolutely grave responsibility it has here, and focus on finding and implementing a humane solution,\u201d the congressman added. \u201cAnd this must mean that the blockade is lifted and the people can continue to live in their ancient homeland\u2014and not be subject to violence and threats. This situation is now a three-alarm fire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the witnesses who spoke to lawmakers on Wednesday was Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, who released a statement Aug. 7 warning that<\/a> \u201cthere is a reasonable basis to believe that a Genocide is being committed against Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are no crematories and there are no machete attacks,\u201d he wrote. \u201cStarvation is the invisible genocide weapon. Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith called on his colleagues Wednesday to recognize that 120,000 Armenian Christians living in Nagorno-Karabakh are facing extinction. \u201cDelay is denial,\u201d Smith, who chaired the emergency congressional hearing on Nagorno-Karabakh as co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, said in a statement to The Daily Signal. \u201cThe Biden Administration must say immediately […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":754,"featured_media":38613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[252],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cww7news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/ARME.jpg?fit=759%2C504&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38612"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38614,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38612\/revisions\/38614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}