We are asking that people sign this petition to demonstrate their support of this statement of solidarity written by the Syracuse Democratic Socialists of America, regarding the ongoing war crimes being committed against Armenians in Artsakh by the Azeri and Turkish governments: 

Once again, Armenians stand in the cross hairs of imperial greed and autocratic ambition. We, the Democratic Socialists of America Syracuse Chapter and friends and allies, stand in solidarity with our siblings and comrades in the Caucasus against this violence and call for an immediate end to violence and a comprehensive peace agreement.

Background: 

The borders of the lands that are today the Republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Artsakh (also known as Nagorno-Karabakh) were created by the Soviet Regime without consultation with its peoples.  With the purpose of dividing and controlling them, the Soviets assigned the ethnic Armenians of today’s Artsakh to the Azeri Republic rather than the bordering Armenian Republic.  These lands were among the ancient homelands of Armenians, evidenced by archaeology and written history.  After the fall of the Soviet Union, there was widespread ethnic violence in the Caucasus, including Anti-Armenian pogroms in Azerbaijan.  The Armenians of Artsakh rose up to break from the Azerbaijani government, establishing their own republic which, after a brutal war, still stands today.

This was not the first time that Armenians had been the victim of imperial violence, as they had suffered the horrors of the 1915-1917 genocide of over a million Armenians and other Christians in the Ottoman Empire.  The Republic of Turkey, the successor of the Ottoman state, has not only denied this genocide but has shamefully sought to stamp out any memory or recognition of it.

In the years since the 1994 ceasefire, the differences between these two states has become more stark. Armenia has a population of 3 million and a military budget of $0.5 billion while Azerbaijan has a population of almost 10 million and a military budget of $2.73 billion.  The Azerbaijani government’s closest ally and supporter is the Republic of Turkey, a US ally and member of the NATO Alliance with a military budget of $18.2 billion.  The kleptocratic Azeri regime has become a major natural gas exporter, with close ties to multinational corporations like BP, pouring this massive inflow of wealth into the military, police state and presidential vanity projects like the 2012 Eurovision song contest.  To meet rising European Union demand, Azerbaijan has constructed massive, strategic gas pipelines, further entrenching the economic and military importance of the dictatorship for the West while enriching its corrupt leaders and international capital. 

Today’s Context:

On September 27, 2020, the Azeri Republic reopened the war with a long-feared assault on Artsakh.  Azeri president Ilham Aliyev, in power since inheriting the office from his father in 2003, has used repression to keep control of his own people and no decision by this government, including this war, can be viewed as the legitimate democratic will of the Azeri people.

Since the 27th, Artsakh’s civilian population has been subjected to shelling with heavy rockets and bombings with long-range ballistic missiles and the widely-prohibited LAR-160 artillery rocket that carries clustered submunition warheads. Besides targeting neighborhoods, these attacks have also targeted infrastructure and sites whose bombing could lead to environmental disaster. After the first few days of attacks, the assaults escalated beyond Artsakh and into the Republic of Armenia, where several towns have been attacked with artillery and drone strikes.

While the principal combatants in this emerging war are the armies of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Artsakh, it is clear that this is only one front of a broader confrontation between the Turkish Republic and the Russian Federation.  In particular, each day reveals deeper involvement of Turkish military support for the Azeri assault. This includes the use of substantial Turkish military weaponry and equipment, and Turkey’s largely coercive recruitment of desperate Syrians - themselves victims of imperialist rivalries - into the Azeri forces. The authoritarian, conservative governments of both Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin have sought to reassert their former roles as regionally dominant imperial powers, ambitions that bring them into conflict.

Like the people of Syria and Libya, the lives, homes and livelihoods of the Armenians of Artsakh are now prey to imperial greed, violent nationalism and unchecked militarization as the conflict between these two powers accelerates.

Resolution:

As the Democratic Socialists of Syracuse, NY, and friends and allies, we: 

- Condemn the horrific attacks against Artsakh and Armenia.

- Call on Congress to immediately pass H.Res.1165 denouncing Azerbaijani & Turkish aggression.

- Stand against all neo-fascist authoritarians and imperialists and in solidarity with the oppressed peoples of all nations.

- Stand against militarization and the crimes against humanity and the environment it causes both at home and abroad.

- Stand against disinformation and false equivalences between countries with vastly disparate amounts of wealth and geopolitical power.

- Call on all peoples to recognize the Armenian Genocide and for appropriate reparations to be made by the Turkish Republic.