The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative today announced that Co-Founder Noubar Afeyan has issued a global call to action to prevent a second Armenian genocide, on this 109th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide Day of Remembrance. Afeyan made the global call to action in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The London Times, as well as on global social media channels. 

The Call to Action underscores the similarities in atrocities that took place 109 years ago, and are happening again today:

“Even as we mourn the past, history is repeating itself. Armenians are once again the target of ethnic cleansing, political leaders are unlawfully held as hostages, and the country of Armenia faces existential threats to its sovereignty and self-determination.

A busy world has been looking the other way. So it’s not widely understood that since last September, Azerbaijan has driven 120,000 Armenians—the entire population of Artsakh, the Armenian enclave also known as Nagorno Karabakh—from their ancestral homeland.”

He also calls on the government of Azerbaijan to restore peace in the region and to act with justice towards the prisoners it has unlawfully captured: 

“Azerbaijan also continues to unlawfully hold Armenian hostages, including my friend and colleague Ruben Vardanyan, a businessman and philanthropist who briefly served as state minister of Artsakh. Meanwhile, escalating clashes on Armenia’s border continue to fuel growing fears that Azerbaijan may be planning to invade Armenia itself.

Azerbaijan today should find no grounds for conflict with Armenia. After last year’s invasion, Armenia relinquished efforts at self-governance in Nagorno- Karabakh. For Azerbaijan to now insist that peace must be premised on Armenia accepting incursions on its own internationally recognized border to enable a corridor connecting Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan and Turkey is both unlawful and unjust.”

Commenting on his effort to raise awareness of the injustices happening against Armenians and the fear of a second genocide, Afeyan said, “Today is the 109th anniversary of 1.5 million Armenians being driven from their homes and killed at the hands of Ottoman Turks, and now, it is happening again. Today, we must do more than mourn the massacres of the past. It’s time to step up to prevent the massacres of the future.”

For the full Call to Action, please visit: Don’t Just Remember. Act!

Photo: Tsitsernakaberd Memorial, Yerevan, Armenia - April 24, 2017