September 18, 2024 (released September 18, 2024)

Washington, D.C. - The Armenian National Institute (ANI) announced the launch of a new website documenting the unfolding of the genocidal process that resulted in the destruction of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Housed on the main ANI website, which in over 25 years has become a preeminent authority documenting international affirmation of the World War I era Armenian Genocide, the new site is based entirely on formal records attesting to the genocidal nature of the events that resulted in the complete expulsion of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The new section of the ANI website is titled The Ethnic Cleansing and Destruction of Nagorno-Karabakh: The Latest Chapter of the Armenian Genocide.

ANI plans to further expand the posted database as more records are reviewed. The site already contains thousands of pages and photos and more than 370 formal records from official, international, and public entities that observed or reported about the course of events. A wide array of documents are offered ranging from UN and OSCE records to United States, European, and other countries’ legislative and executive documents, human rights organizations’ reports, American universities’ research documentation projects, and other vetted, relevant material.

“The events surrounding the destruction of Nagorno-Karabakh are well documented. Much of the most damning evidence comes from Azeri and Turkish sources, including admissions of genocidal intent before, during, and after September 2023. If there were any reasonable doubts before, today it is clear from their own words and deeds that the perpetrators’ ultimate objective has always been the eventual elimination of the Armenian people, our Christian presence, and culture in Artsakh as a precursor to moving against the current Republic of Armenia. The main pretext for ethnic cleansing against peaceful civilians who were supposed to be protected by Russian peacekeepers is plainly not sustainable,” stated Van Z. Krikorian, Chairman of the ANI Board of Governors. “Having achieved their material objectives, genocidal regimes immediately resort to distorting the evidence and manufacturing a denial industry. This site and our ongoing, fact-based, work pre-empt the crude denial efforts to date and the more sophisticated denials and false narratives we expect over time from the authoritarian Aliyev and Erdogan governments.”

With the focus on the final compulsive exodus of the Armenian people in September 2023, the records cover widely the consequence of the 44-Day War in 2020 and the succeeding stage by stage complete blockading and threatened starvation of the Armenian population, through the final genocidal ethnic cleansing in September 2023 by Azerbaijan and Turkey and continuing desecration and destruction of historic Armenian churches and Christian presence. It also includes the Columbia University - Human Rights and Foreign Terrorist Activities in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) project led by Professor David L. Phillips, which provided primary sources documenting crimes against humanity and other atrocities.

For 33 years, from 1991 to 2023, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, also referred to as the Republic of Artsakh, was a democratic self-governing state. For seventy years prior, from 1921 to 1991, Nagorno-Karabakh was an autonomous district in the USSR. After a millennia of existence as an ethno-geographic region inhabited by an indigenous Armenian population, in September 2023, Nagorno-Karabakh was entirely depopulated by Azerbaijani and Turkish forces.

“With increasing public attention and reporting on the very late stage of the catastrophic events, the documentation on this website constitutes a strong foundation for understanding how the longer story unfolded,” added ANI Director Dr. Rouben Adalian. “The site is also designed with educators, scholars, and academics for quick access to a collection of reliable sources. The central point of the website is that the ethnic cleansing of the Armenians of Artsakh was the latest chapter of the Armenian Genocide, revealing the long arc of overall Turkish-Azeri policies toward Armenians across the past two centuries beginning with the 1890s massacres in the Ottoman Empire.”

Krikorian added: “I take the occasion to thank the academics who helped us with this, and the invaluable Mark Malkasian for his oversight and structure of the site. The design parallels the documentary facet of the ANI website, which Malkasian, an ANI board member, has long overseen. I take the occasion also to thank the team that worked with the ANI Director over the course of the past year to identify, organize, and post these important records. I want to recognize especially the 2024 summer interns, Shushanik Hayriyan, Lili Mkrtchyan, Nareg Panossian, Mihranush Varzhapetyan, and Sergey Khachatryan, along with former Assistant to the ANI Director Robert Arzoumanian who worked so industriously and conscientiously to assemble this sizable record on the Nagorno-Karabakh genocide.”

The first version of the Nagorno-Karabakh Genocide website is being released in September 2024 to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the forcible depopulation of ethnic Armenians from Artsakh. ANI welcomes constructive comments and suggestions as the site is further expanded.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Genocide website complements the premier Internet resource on the Armenian Genocide that already contains extensive information on the events of 1915 and their consequences, including historic records, an extensive database of affirmation statements from around the world, another database of Armenian Genocide memorials across the continents, freely downloadable exhibits based on authenticated photographic evidence from U.S. archives, an interactive museum component as an introduction to the Armenian Genocide, an entire set of instructional resources for educators to rely upon depending on the needs of their schools and students, as well as an introductory bibliography to the extensive scholarly literature on the subject of human rights and genocide as related to the Armenian Genocide, among many other useful components. The ANI website is also available in Turkish, Arabic, and Spanish, and is constantly expanded as more records are translated.

Founded in 1997, the Armenian National Institute (ANI) is a 501(c)(3) educational charity based in Washington, D.C., and is dedicated to the study, research, and affirmation of the Armenian Genocide. The ANI website can be consulted in English, Turkish, Spanish, and Arabic. ANI also maintains the online Armenian Genocide Museum of America (AGMA).

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NR# 2024-01