No to Genocidal States at the Olympic Games! Boycott Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Israel
Communiqué de presse en français
On July 26, 2024, the city of Paris will host the world’s largest sporting event, with thousands of athletes and spectators coming together for a grand moment of unity. However, behind the beautiful values promoted by the spirit of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the event, under the guise of neutrality, welcomes states that commit mass crimes with total impunity and flaunt serious violations of international law and human rights. The invitation of the Azerbaijani state, alongside Turkey and Israel, is unacceptable.
In September 2020, Azerbaijani forces, commanded by Turkey and primarily armed by Israel, launched a military offensive against the 120,000 Armenians living in the independent Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, on lands they had inhabited for millennia. This bloody war, where civilians were not spared, forced Armenians to abandon part of their land. The Aliyev regime forced civilians into exile to implement its policy of colonizing Armenian lands. Since then, dozens of Armenians remain imprisoned in Aliyev’s regime jails, subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment while awaiting sham trials where they face death or life imprisonment!
Following this offensive, to completely empty Nagorno-Karabakh of Armenians, the Azerbaijani government imposed a blockade to starve them out and force them to leave the lands they were still surviving on. In September 2023, after nine months of blockade, Azerbaijani troops used armed force against a starving population. In just a few days, all Armenians had to flee. The Aliyev regime is organizing the colonization of these Armenian lands and systematically destroying all traces of the millennial presence of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
However, Azerbaijan will not stop at the annexation of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. This colonial process is part of a broader project, that of Pan-Turkism: the annihilation of Armenians and the annexation of their lands to unite the territories of Turkey and Azerbaijan. This racist and neo-Ottoman policy of Turkey and Azerbaijan demonstrates that the process of exterminating Armenians initiated by the Turkish state at the end of the 19th century, whose peak was the 1915 genocide, is not over. Turkey and Azerbaijan are implementing this plan with the blessing of Russia and the West.
These two states are also open-air prisons for anyone daring to denounce their fascist policies or support the Armenian people: activists, journalists, lawyers, intellectuals, teachers, opposition elected officials, gender minorities, and ethnic minorities face fierce repression! The Olympic and Paralympic Games are therefore an opportunity for us, activists for the Armenian cause, to denounce the crimes of these states and their accomplices who prefer collaboration to justice. Turkey and Azerbaijan try to buy a reputation with massive communication campaigns and corruption to make people forget their atrocities.
We will never remain silent in the face of the crimes of Azerbaijan and Turkey, and we will always be uncompromising against attempts to deceive the public about the true nature of these regimes. We do not forget, and we do not forgive the crimes committed against struggling peoples.
No to genocidal, racist, and imperialist states at the Olympic and Paralympic Games!