Genocide Studies International’s speech: “This is a human issue”
Note: Dr. Henry Theriault delivered this speech on behalf of Genocide Studies International at “Action for Artsakh” in front of the JFK Federal Building in Boston, Massachusetts on 18 November 2023.
I’m the former President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars and founding co-editor of Genocide Studies International, which is published by the University of Toronto Press in conjunction with Zoryan Institute that many of you may be familiar with. I’m here, first to say, this is not an Armenian issue. This is a human issue. It is a basic human rights issue of a group of people with every legal and political right to live as an independent group, free from violence and oppression. They have asserted that right for decades in accord with Soviet law and then international law, and they have been met purely with violence by Azerbaijan and Turkey. Their quest, to just claim nothing more than simple human dignity, has been met with violence, genocidal violence. I’m a genocide scholar. Many scholars of genocide, whether they have any kind of focus on the Armenian case or not, are recognizing that what is happening now is not only part of the genocidal process that started in the 1890s with the goal of eliminating Armenians from the entire Caucasus and Western Armenian regions. But it is also, just what has happened now, also is either already genocide, or on the verge of becoming genocide, according to the UN Convention and other applicable international law. The current President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the former Vice President, and myself just submitted a resolution to ask IAGS to point out the genocidal risk and features of genocide that are already happening, and we hope that will be passed in the next few months and will be a statement that will help support the right of Armenians from Artsakh, not just to survive but to return. In addition, Genocide Studies International just did a special issue on what started off as the Lachin blockade but ended up expanding to include a broader set of issues. Again, the Genocide Studies community, which is mostly non-Armenian, is 100% clear about what’s happening now, and stands with Armenians.
