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WHY THE US HAS AN OBLIGATION TO AID ARTSAKH AND ARMENIA: A THREAD, EXPLAINED IN LAYMAN’S TERMS. [please RT, especially if you have non-Armenian followers]
During and in the aftermath of the Nagorno Karabakh War of 2020, multiple war crimes have been committed by both Turkey and Azerbaijan against the ethnically Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh, known to Armenians as Artsakh.
These include: the burning of 18 hectares of forest via white phosphorus, a form of chemical warfare that has been outlawed; the torture, dismemberment, and beheadings of Armenian POWs; & the shelling of civilian areas far from the front lines (maternity wards, churches.)
WHY WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION: a few reasons. First and foremost, we must discuss the third and fourth Geneva Conventions. Per these agreements, willful killing, torture and inhumane treatments of POWs, taking hostages, unjustified & extensive destruction & appropriation of property,
and willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health are explicitly considered “grave breaches” condemnable by law. We have seen 
demonstrably prove they have committed all of these grave breaches, thus placing them in violation of the Geneva Convention.
demonstrably prove they have committed all of these grave breaches, thus placing them in violation of the Geneva Convention.
Next, we have our responsibility as NATO co-chairs. Turkey, a NATO nation, sent state-sponsored mercenaries from Syria to aid Azerbaijan under false pretenses. This is a war crime, as neither Turkey nor Syria have a responsibility in the war, and violates the NATO treaty.
They’ve also unlawfully purchased Russian airspace (in addition to plenty of other misdeeds), which again violates the treaty. Per the treaty itself, a NATO co-chair has the responsibility to sanction and hold another NATO nation culpable—something we have consistently failed in.
Lastly, we have the Magnitsky Act, which was created under the Obama administration in 2012. The purpose of the Magnitsky Act is to “authorize the U.S. government to sanction those who it sees as human rights offenders, freeze their assets, and ban them from entering the U.S.”
We have seen the Magnitsky act be enforced with Russian, Turkish, Latvian, Saudi Arabian, Chechen, Burmese, Iraqi, Chinese, Dominican, Lebanese, Ugandan, Tanzanian, Nicaraguan, and Pakistani individuals since its conception, all on the grounds of gross humanitarian violations.
Photo and video evidence of Azerbaijani war crimes, cultural and ethnic cleansing, and paying off institutions such as UNESCO are more than readily available and irrefutably serve as proof that Azerbaijan meets the criteria for sanctioning under the Magnitsky Act.
Factoring in the Geneva Convention, NATO responsibility, and the Magnitsky Act, we have a legal obligation to sanction Turkey and Azerbaijan, ban Turkish and Azerbaijani officials from US entry, and to freeze their assets due to humanitarian and war crimes.
But how do we have a moral or ethical obligation to Artsakh and Armenia? Simply put, much of Turkey and Azerbaijan’s aggressions not only against Armenians, but in regards to Turkish aggression toward nations like Libya, Syria and Greece, is in part our fault.
Due to self-serving interests, the US has disregarded our responsibilities and left Turkey unchecked for years in a last-ditch effort to salvage our diplomacy with Erdogan’s Turkey, which has all but deteriorated by this point.
In looking the other way, we’ve been complicit in Turkey’s bid to wage unfettered war against multiple countries, destabilize nations, put people in fear, and have ultimately allowed Turkey’s dreams of Neo-Ottoman expansionism and Pan-Turkic ideology to grow.
This leads us to Artsakh, and the joint Turkish-Azerbaijani effort to stamp out an Armenian presence in the Middle East in order to conquer that land. If we continue to leave Turkey unchecked, we are looking at another major genocide against Armenians within the next 5 years.
This absolutely cannot happen, if not for any other reason than the fact that this would lead to the extermination of three million people in Armenia alone, to say nothing of the crypto-Armenians in Turkey and Azerbaijan.
We HAVE to act. We have protections in place to prevent continued slaughter against people like Armenians, which will undoubtedly occur if we do not intervene now. Aliyev and Erdogan have nigh explicitly stated their intent to carry out a full-scale 2nd genocide and claim Armenia
as their own. And they will move on, and they will do this to others. We have seen this throughout the last 150 years, if not longer. Turkey’s aspirations of expansion, now aided by oil-rich Azerbaijan, has the capabilities to throw us into another world war.
Put simply, we are morally and ethically obligated because allowing Turkey to remain unchecked promises catastrophic global ramifications. Today it’s Artsakh, tomorrow it’s Armenia. And then...who knows, and who knows if they’ll ever stop.
We must utilize the Magnitsky Act, the Geneva Convention, and our capabilities through NATO and act against Turkey and Azerbaijan before it’s too late. Armenia, Greece, Libya, Syria, and so many others depend on it.
