Ruben Vardanyan Makes a Statement

Considering the serious existential challenges faced by the population of the Republic of Artsakh during the 2020 war, in its aftermath, and now under conditions of a hundred-day blockade, as well as the fact that the Azerbaijani state policy is aimed exclusively at the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, including the organization and implementation of genocide, we, together with the legal team led by Taron Simonian, have developed an extensive (over 120 pages) application-analysis addressed to the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide. This was stated by the former Prime Minister of Artsakh, Ruben Vardanyan, on his Facebook page.

“The analysis was developed based not only on the UN Charter, resolutions of the UN General Assembly, and international conventions, but also on the document published by the UN in 2014 titled 'Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes: A Tool for Prevention,' which presents a total of 8 general and 6 specific risk factors. The presence of even a few of these factors is sufficient for the danger of genocide to be considered real, which requires necessary actions from the international community in order to prevent the impending genocide,” Vardanyan noted.

The analysis provides legal and factual justifications for all 14 factors and the sub-factors presented under them, utilizing the findings of previous national and international organizations’ fact-finding missions and international legal regulations. It is noteworthy that the analysis demonstrates that the danger of impending genocide against the people of Artsakh is substantiated not by one or two specific factors identified by the UN, but within the framework of all 14 factors.

We are submitting this application-analysis to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh, hoping that it will be presented to international organizations and the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide,” Vardanyan concluded.