Nagorno-Karabakh: Armenia Demands End to Azerbaijan Blockade Amid Accusations of Genocide

Armenia is calling on the United Nations Security Council to address a worsening humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan home to ethnic Armenians that has been under a blockade for eight months. Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought multiple wars over the territory since the collapse of the Soviet Union, most recently in 2020. Azerbaijan closed the only road into the region in December, severely restricting the movement of food, medicine and other supplies for the roughly 120,000 people living there. “We cannot accept a new Armenian genocide in 2023,” says Luis Moreno Ocampo, the Argentine lawyer who served as the first prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. He issued a report earlier this month on the blockade. We also speak with Anna Ohanyan, professor of political science and international relations at Stonehill College, who says Azerbaijan is relying on “the use of hunger as a weapon” in order not to engage politically with the largely self-governing region of Nagorno-Karabakh.