Azerbaijan Seeks Life Sentences For Leaders Who Didn't Surrender Fast Enough
Deutsche Welle reports that Azerbaijan is seeking life sentences for former Nagorno-Karabakh leaders on manufactured charges, including 'terrorism.' This comes after Baku's lightning offensive in September 2023, which led to the forced displacement of virtually the entire Armenian population—over 100,000 residents—from their ancestral lands. The international community, preoccupied elsewhere
(perhaps by another ethnic cleansing elsewhere), offered little more than platitudes as the ancient Armenian enclave was emptied. While Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev consolidates his 'victory,' (and his family's continued grip on power), the irony of these 'legal proceedings' is breathtaking. These are not trials based on international law, but rather on the victor's justice for leaders who
dared to resist an invasion. Imagine if the global outcry for genuine war crimes, like the targeting of civilians or the forced displacement of entire populations, were as loud as the silence that greeted the end of Nagorno-Karabakh.