The President of the Order of Ahepa International, Savas C. Tsivicos, issued a statement on the recent increase in human suffering in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

Ahepa was founded in 1922 to combat the injustices and racial discrimination inflicted on Greek immigrants at the time. By partnering with other groups in the United States (B’Nai B’rith, the NAACP, and the Order of the Sons of Italy for example), Ahepa brought about notable changes for our immigrant ancestors.

“We strongly condemn the ethnic cleansing of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians expelled from Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan in recent weeks. We stand with the Armenian people and the Armenian diaspora during this horrific time of gross human rights violations and war atrocities committed by Azerbaijan, disrupting peace and stability in this region.

The world still needs to resolve conflict, but when lives are at stake, people need to speak out. The AHEPA Order calls for an immediate ceasefire between the parties in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The deaths of innocent women and children have devastated many families. Actors in the region are called upon to immediately restore peace in the region so that the victims of this genocide can return to their homes in complete safety.

The Supreme President added: “Having witnessed the devastation of a war-torn country like my country in Cyprus, I am appalled by the lack of attention given to this issue, both nationally and internationally. . We call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the hostilities which are causing numerous losses of human lives. Politics, greed and corruption have reared their head in this region and we express our compassion and prayers to our Armenian brothers and sisters.” The expulsion follows military attacks by Azerbaijan in mid-September to regain control of Nagorno-Karabakh and a nine-month blockade of a main corridor that led to a severe shortage of food, medicine and other essential goods and supplies, as well as a power outage. public services, which left Armenians devastated.

AHEPA has worked with several Armenian-American organizations (Armenian National Committee of America and Armenian Assembly of America) in hopes of bringing attention to this issue. Our friends at the Armenian Assembly of America can be found at: https://action.aaainc.org/ where they have outlined their plan of attack on this issue. Our friends at the Armenian National Committee of America can be found at: https://www.votervoice.net/ANCA/Campaigns/107733/Respond. The Supreme President is asking all of our 400 chapters (our Volunteer Army) to visit these websites and investigate how they can best help our brothers and sisters in need at this time.

Respect for human rights, including ethnic minorities, and international law must be considered sacrosanct. The Azerbaijani government’s word cannot be trusted given its abysmal human rights record. He must be held responsible. Therefore, we call on the international community, led by the United States, to properly record human rights violations and other crimes committed by Azerbaijan and welcome the call of Senate Foreign Affairs Chairman Ben Cardin, to the United States to end its security assistance to Azerbaijan. Entities participating in talks with Azerbaijan must guarantee and protect the right of return of ethnic Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh, whether temporarily or in the long term, if they so wish. International monitoring must be put in place to report on the situation of ethnic Armenians who remained or who would choose to return to Nagorno-Karabakh.

SOURCE; AHEPA