Starvation as Genocide, The Artsakh Blockade, and the Failure of International Criminal Law

Volume 7, Issue 5, October 2023     |     PP. 303-310      |     PDF (175 K)    |     Pub. Date: September 6, 2023
DOI: 10.54647/sociology841157    73 Downloads     11596 Views  

Author(s)

George S. Yacoubian, George S. Yacoubian, Jr., has advanced degrees in Criminology and Criminal Justice, a J.D. from the Rutgers University School of Law, an LL.M. in Transnational Law from the Temple University School of Law, an S.J.D. from the Suffolk University School of Law, and a master’s degree in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from Columbia University. Direct all correspondences to George S. Yacoubian, Jr., 150 N. Radnor Chester Road, Suite F200, Radnor, PA 19087, 610.213.3452, gyacoubian@soar-us.org

Abstract
The Artsakh War is an ethnic, religious, and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Artsakh, an Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan. The modern conflict began in 1988 and escalated into a full-scale war in the early 1990s. Escalations in April 2016, and most recently in October 2020, have renewed the antagonism. Since December 2022, Azerbaijan has blocked the Lachin corridor, the only route that connects Artsakh to Armenia proper. This blockade has prevented Artsakh from obtaining food, water, medicine, and humanitarian aid. Under any reasonable interpretation of the Genocide Convention, this blockade evidences a genocidal intent that has led directly to the deaths of Artsakh Armenians by starvation. Like the 1.5 million Armenians who were slaughtered in Ottoman Turkey in 1915, history is repeating itself as the international community fails to recognize the need for immediate action.

Keywords
Artsakh, Armenia, genocide, Genocide Convention

Cite this paper
George S. Yacoubian, Starvation as Genocide, The Artsakh Blockade, and the Failure of International Criminal Law , SCIREA Journal of Sociology. Volume 7, Issue 5, October 2023 | PP. 303-310. 10.54647/sociology841157

References

[ 1 ] Akhavan, P. (1995). Enforcement of the Genocide Convention: A Challenge to Civilization. Harvard Human Rights Journal, 8, 229-258.
[ 2 ] Bassiouni, C. (1987). International Criminal Law (Vol. III). New York: Transnational Publishers.
[ 3 ] Bassiouni, C. (1995). Establishing an International Criminal Court: Historical Survey. Military Law Review, 149, 49-57.
[ 4 ] Bassiouni, C. (1996). The Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780: Investigating Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Former Yugoslavia. In R. Clark and M. Sann (Eds.), The Prosecution of International Crimes (pp. 61-124). New Jersey: Transaction Publishers.
[ 5 ] Becker, E. (1986). When The War Was Over. New York: Simon and Schuster.
[ 6 ] Bekker, P. (1993). The International Tribunal for Violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Former Yugoslavia. American Journal of International Law, 87, 639-668.
[ 7 ] Bridge, J. (1964). The Case for an International Court of Criminal Justice and the Formulation of International Criminal Law. International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 13, 1255-1281.
[ 8 ] Chalk, F., and Jonassohn, K. (1990). The History and Sociology of Genocide. New Haven: Yale University Press.
[ 9 ] Destexhe, A. (1995). Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. New York: New York University Press.
[ 10 ] Ferencz, B. (1992). An International Criminal Code and Court: Where They Stand and Where They’re Going. Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, 30, 375-399.
[ 11 ] Kiernan, B. (1994). The Cambodian Genocide: Issues and Responses. In G. J. Andreopoulos (Ed.), Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions (pp. 191-228). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
[ 12 ] Kuper, L. (1977). The Pity of It All: Polarisation of Racial and Ethnic Relations. London: Duckworth.
[ 13 ] Kuper, L. (1981). Genocide: Its Political Use in the Twentieth Century. New York: Penguin Books.
[ 14 ] Lemkin, R. (1944). Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment of International Peace.
[ 15 ] Lewy, G. (1978). America in Vietnam. New York: Oxford University Press.
[ 16 ] Prunier, G. (1995). The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide. New York: Columbia University Press.
[ 17 ] Sartre, J.P. (1968). On Genocide. Boston: Beacon Press.
[ 18 ] Wisskirchen, C. (1997). Recent Developments in the Two Ad Hoc Tribunals. London: Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
[ 19 ] Yacoubian, G. (2023). The Artsakh Conflict as a Violation of the Genocide Convention: Toward a Referral to the International Criminal Court. Advances in Applied Sociology 13(2), 171-177.
[ 20 ] Yacoubian, G. (2022). Evaluating the Triadic Relationship between the Armenian Diaspora, Armenia’s Cultural Identity, and the Artsakh War: Toward a Sustainable Map of Peace. Advances in Applied Sociology 12(9): 557-584.