Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the U.K. David Lammy has been slammed as “callous and ignorant” after writing in a recent blog post that Azerbaijan has been able to “liberate” territory in a conflict described as an ethnic cleansing, GB News writes.
As noted, the foreign secretary’s view that the Nagorno-Karabakh region has been “liberated” stands in contrast to the official stance of the British Government.
Last September, a senior British ambassador slammed Azerbaijan’s use of force after violence restarted in its ethnic and territorial conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Neil Holland said that Azerbaijan’s use of force is unacceptable and reaffirmed that Britain has urged a ceasefire in the long-running conflict. Holland, the Head of the United Kingdom’s Delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), slammed Azerbaijan’s decision to commence a military operation in the region after a lull in violence. Holland’s statements came after Azerbaijan launched a significant military offensive against the self-declared breakaway state of Artsakh. This was widely condemned as a violation of the ceasefire agreement penned after the 2020 ethnic conflict.
The Azerbaijani invasion has been described as an ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians and a second Armenian genocide by a former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
Mark Movsesion, the Frederick A. Whitney Professor and Director of the Mattone Center for Law and Religion at St. John’s University Law School, called on Lammy to withdraw his remarks.
“The Foreign Secretary’s reference to Azerbaijan’s ‘liberation’ of Nagorno-Karabakh is shockingly callous and ignorant. In fact, exactly a year ago, Baku ethnically cleansed the region of its 120,000 Christian Armenian inhabitants in violation of an order from the International Court of Justice,” Movsesion said.
According to Movsesion, Lammy seems to think Azerbaijan, like Ukraine, is trying to free itself from Russian domination. In fact, Azerbaijan and Russia are strategic partners, “and Azerbaijan carried out the ethnic cleansing of Karabakh with Russian acquiescence.”
Lammy made his remarks in a blog post after he returned from a recent trip to Ukraine. Discussing how Ukrainians take pride in their closer links with Europe, Lammy wrote: “The same effect is notable across Russia’s neighbors. The states of Central Asia look increasingly east and south… Azerbaijan has been able to liberate territory it lost in the early 1990s.”
In this regard, British MP Alicia Kearns wrote: “Words matter as Foreign Secretary, especially when opining on conflict. Contradicting long standing U.K. policy in a vanity blog is totally inappropriate and throws into question the Foreign Secretary’s judgment. David Lammy needs to urgently clarify the Government’s policy on Nagorno-Karabakh. This is a serious matter – over 100,000 people have been displaced from their homes. The Conservative Party believes encouraging Azerbaijan and Armenia to agree a historic peace treaty is a diplomatic priority.”
At the same time, the Foreign Office said in a statement: “The UK supports the territorial integrity of both Armenia and Azerbaijan and is encouraged by both sides to engage in meaningful dialogue. We will continue to support their commitment to lasting peace in the region.”
