Call by citizens of Turkey to international community to end the blockade of Karabakh

The blockade implemented by Azerbaijan on the Lachin corridor has passed eight months and has led to a humanitarian crisis. A group of Turkish writers, politicians and rights defenders called on the international community to take action:

"For months, the Baku regime, backed by the Ankara regime, has been imposing a blockade on the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh that raises the possibility of genocide. The Stepanakert-Goris road, which should have been open for humanitarian aid, emergency services and peacekeepers after the last Karabakh war in which the Turkish Armed Forces were involved, has been under siege and closed since December 12, 2022.

For months, the United Nations, European Union and the Council of Europe have called on Azerbaijan to end the blockade of 120,000 people living in Karabakh, but the Baku regime has ignored, rejected or denied the blockade. Yet everyone knows that no basic necessities can enter Karabakh and no Karabakh resident can leave the region, even to meet the urgent health needs.

In the face of the deepening crisis and confirming the concerns of the international community, Baku dictator Ilham Aliyev continues to publicly and repeatedly threaten Karabakh residents. So much so that the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, published an important report characterizing Aliyev's actions in Karabakh as conducive to genocide.

We, the undersigned from Turkey, see that the international community is not sensitive enough to the developments and we are watching the situation with concern. Preventing genocides does not mean waiting for them to happen and then intervening. It means taking active steps to prevent such a danger now!

We call on all states, international organizations, especially the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, and international public opinion to take an active stand.

Just as the Berlin blockade was broken in 1948-49, we call for breaking the blockade of Karabakh through airlift and thus putting an end to this human tragedy."

Abdullah Demirbaş, Abdülhakim Daş, Adnan Cangüder, Adnan Çelik, Ahmet Aykaç, Ahmet Konuk, Akın Atauz, Akın Birdal, Alev Er, Alex Köşkeryan, Ali Gökkaya, Ari Günter, Aslı Erdoğan, Attila Tuygan, Ayşe Hür, Ayşe Yıldırım, Ayşegül Devecioğlu, Baskın Oran, Bayram Kaya, Celâl Başlangıç, Cengiz Aktar, Cengiz Arın, Denis Dreisbusch, Doğan Özgüden, Emrah Cilasun, Erdal Doğan, Erdoğan Kahyaoğlu, Eren Keskin, Ergun Babahan, Erol Ercan, Eser Budak, Esra Mungan, Fatime Akalın, Fikret Başkaya, Garo Kaprielyan, Gençay Gürsoy, Güngör Şenkal, Gürhan Ertür, Hacer Ansal, Hasan Burgucuoğlu, Hatice Yıldız, Hıdır Çelik, Hovsep Hayreni, Hüseyin Habip Taşkın, İbrahim Seven, İnan Gedik, İnci Tuğsavul, İra Tzourou, Kemal Bilget, Kemal Hür, Kemal Yalçın, Kenan Yenice, Mahmut Konuk, Mehmet Ali Balta, Nafiz Özbek, Necati Abay, Nedim Kibar, Nesim Ovadya İzrail, Nesrin Nas, Nevzat Onaran, Nurcan Baysal, Nurten Kırmızıgül, Okan Küçükersan, Osman Okkan, Oya Baydar, Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, Ömer Madra, Racho Donef, Ragıp Duran, Ragıp Zarakolu, Ramazan Gezgin, Recep Maraşlı, Sait Çetinoğlu, Sait Oral, Selahattin Koçak, Selay Ertem, Selma Koçiva, Serdar Koçman, Sibel Yiğittekin, Şaban İba, Şakir Bilgin, Şamil Altan, Şanar Yurdatapan, Şükriye Ercan, Taner Akçam, Ülkü Çevik, Viktorya Çiprut, Yalçın Ergündoğan, Yasemin Gedik, Yaşar Küçükaslan, Yavuz Aydın, Yavuz Baydar, Yetvart Danzikyan, Yıldız Aydın, Yusuf Köse, Zarife Atik, Ziya Özder.