Applying International Criminal Law to the Artsakh Conflict: Threat of a Second Genocide?

The Artsakh War is an ethnic, religious, and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), an Armenian- populated enclave within Azerbaijan. The modern conflict began in the late 1980s and escalated into a full-scale war in the early 1990s. A ceasefire signed three decades ago provided for a period of relative stability, but escalations in April 2016, and most recently since October 2020, have renewed the antagonism. Actions by Azerbaijan within the past year may be construed as a coordinated genocidal attempt, as measured against the Genocide Convention, to eradicate Artsakh Armenians from their homeland. Implications for international criminal prosecution are discussed.