Ocean County Leader

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLHRC), chaired a congressional hearing today highlighting the continued plight of ethnic Armenians on the first anniversary of the fall of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan.

“Azerbaijan’s genocidal blockade and ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh last year was a monstrous injustice,” said Smith, noting that despite its human rights violations, Azerbaijan is slated to host the United Nations international climate change summit COP29 in November.

“Ethnic Armenians continue to have a right to live in peace and freedom in Nagorno-Karabakh according to their faith and traditions,” said Smith, who chaired two congressional hearings last year as the human rights crisis escalated.

“We must defend the human rights of the ethnic Armenians who are now political prisoners or prisoners of war in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the cultural heritage of Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh,” added Smith. He mentioned his meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in 2015 regarding his human rights record and noted that many ethnic Azerbaijanis also suffer under his regime.

Smith’s TLHRC hearing—entitled “Human Rights in Azerbaijan Since the Fall of Nagorno-Karabakh”—featured a panel of human rights experts including Gegham Stepanyan, Human Rights Defender for the Republic of Artsakh; Professor Adam T. Smith, Co-Director of Caucasus Heritage Watch at Cornell University; Kate Watters, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Crude Accountability; Sharmagh Mardi, Supervising Lawyer at the Center for Truth & Justice; Van Krikorian, Co-Chair of the Armenian Assembly of America; and Andrea J. Prasow, Executive Director of Freedom Now.

“The realization that you are leaving your home for good is an inexplicable feeling,” said Stepanyan. “When you realize that you need to leave behind everything that makes up your identity and head towards the unknown... this is the greatest human tragedy.”

“The U.S. government and international community have yet to respond to Azerbaijan’s policy of cultural erasure which began in 1997 in Nakhchivan,” stated Professor Adam Smith. His research group has documented near-complete erasure—98 percent—of Armenian cultural heritage in that region.

“Churches and cemeteries across Nagorno-Karabakh have borne the brunt of cultural heritage abuses since 2020,” Professor Smith added. “In Spring 2024 alone, we documented three newly destroyed sites and nine more under immediate threat.”

“Azerbaijani social media channels openly issued threats against civilians... resulting in frantic civilian efforts to flee before the arrival of Azerbaijani military forces,” said Mardi.

“Azerbaijan has accelerated its repression as we draw closer to its hosting of COP29 in November,” noted Prasow.

“At a time when one might imagine [Azerbaijan] has every incentive to present itself as respecting law...the Aliyev regime has doubled down on repression,” commented Watters. “Its lack respect for civil society...is stunning.” She added that despite this, Azerbaijan continues engaging internationally by hosting COP29 and trading with Europe.

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