Noubar Afeyan Issues Global Call to Prevent Second Armenian Genocide

Noubar Afeyan, co-founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, has issued a worldwide call to action to prevent what he describes as a looming second Armenian genocide. This announcement comes on the 109th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide Day of Remembrance.

The urgency of Afeyan's Call to Action lies in the striking parallels between the atrocities of the past and the current state of affairs:

"As we commemorate the past, history is tragically repeating itself. Armenians once again find themselves targeted for ethnic cleansing, with political leaders unlawfully detained, and Armenia facing grave threats to its sovereignty and self-determination," wrote the Moderna Chairman.

Afeyan draws attention to the dire situation in the region, highlighting that since September of the previous year, Azerbaijan has forcibly displaced 120,000 Armenians—the entire population of Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh, from their ancestral lands.

Moreover, he calls upon the Azerbaijani government to restore peace in the region and to treat unlawfully captured Armenian prisoners with justice:

"Azerbaijan persists in unlawfully detaining Armenian hostages, including my colleague Ruben Vardanyan, a prominent businessman and philanthropist. Additionally, escalating border clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan fuel concerns of a potential invasion of Armenia itself."

Afeyan stresses that there should be no grounds for conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia today. He highlights Armenia's concession of self-governance in Nagorno-Karabakh following last year's invasion, making Azerbaijan's insistence on peace conditional upon Armenian acceptance of border incursions unjust and unlawful.

Reflecting on the gravity of the situation and the imperative to prevent further atrocities, Afeyan remarked:

"Today marks the 109th anniversary of the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks, and tragically, history seems to be repeating itself. It's no longer enough to mourn the massacres of the past; we must take action to prevent the massacres of the future."

Afeyan's global call to action shows the pressing need for international attention and intervention to avert a potential humanitarian catastrophe in the region.