Dear Mr. Musk,
Recent media reports indicate that you plan to speak virtually at the IAC 2023, an event scheduled to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan. While discussions at the IAC2023 may focus on topics related to space exploration, it nevertheless remains crucial to highlight that Azerbaijan and its President, Ilham Aliyev, have been implicated in committing the 2023 Genocide against the indigenous Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, where Armenians have lived for time immemorial.
Over 90% of Artsakh’s population, totalling 120,000 people, have been forced to flee their ancestral lands within the last four days. Displacement began with President Aliyev’s large-scale offensive military attack on 19 September 2023, following his blockade of Artsakh on 12 December 2022. As part of President Aliyev’s ensuing military onslaught, mass atrocities and grave war crimes were perpetrated. Such war crimes included but were not limited to violence against innocent civilians, children, and women and the destruction of civilian infrastructure. Both offences are explicitly referred to as war crimes in Article 8(2b) of the Rome Statute. In orchestrating such an attack, President Aliyev ruthlessly coerced Armenians into abandoning their homes and ceded control of the region.
President Aliyev has publicly and notably stated that winning the war against Armenians was ‘his life’s mission‘, a goal he has claimed that he has successfully achieved. President Aliyev’s deep-seated hatred towards Armenians is well-documented in the public domain. For instance, Aliyev once infamously declared that Armenians ‘pollute their [in reference to Azerbaijan] city.‘ Subsequently, to curb this ‘pollution’, Armenians would be ‘chased out like dogs.’ Reports of President Aliyev’s hatred towards Armenians can be traced back for years. On 29 January 2015, President Aliyev tweeted from his official Twitter account that Armenia Proper ‘is not even a colony, it is not even worthy of being a servant.‘ This Tweet remains on President Aliyev’s Twitter account to this day.
Further, a quick search on X about #Armeniaphobia would reveal how President Aliyev has systemically instilled and propagated this hatred throughout Azerbaijani institutions and wider society as a whole. Such hostility has materialised not only through the use of average trolls and bots on X but also many Azeri university professors, Vice-Rectors, government ministers, heads of Azeri NGOs’, Azerbaijani Ambassadors, and, most troublingly, the indoctrination of their children from a young age get brought hating Armenians. These are all publicly verifiable.
President Aliyev frequently uses events like IAC to whitewash his image in the West, often in response to frequent accusations of criticising the widespread corruption within Azerbaijan and its poor record for human rights. In particular, Freedom House, an NGO based in Washington dedicated to issues of political advocacy and human rights, notably records, ranks, and accords states worldwide a score, marked out of 100, on matters relating to human rights. At present, Azerbaijan’s score stands at 9/100 on its democracy. Notably, this is only one point higher than the Taliban’s score. Further, in 2012 President Aliyev was even nominated ‘Criminal of the Year’ by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), beating both President Putin and Naser Kelmendi, an Albanian drug lord declared a kingpin and subsequently blacklisted by the US government.
Branches of the US government have recognised President Aliyev’s campaign of destruction against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. On 22 September, The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee stated, ‘ Aliyev will stop at nothing to eradicate Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.’ Indeed, this statement is substantiated when examining the ten-month blockade orchestrated by Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh. Artsakh has been without electricity since 9 January 2023, gas since 21 March 2023, and humanitarian aid, including food, since 15 June 2023. Essential medications have been in short supply since 25 June 2023, with the total blockade affecting 120,000 Armenians. Azerbaijan’s denial of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to Nagarno-Karabakh further exacerbates the crisis. Regarding Azerbaijan’s blockade and accompanying military attack, President Aliyev stated, ‘ I have told that we will chase them like dogs, and now we did it. Everyone saw our iron fist now. And we did that awesomely.’ Further anti-Armenian sentiment has been echoed by other notable Azeri public figures, with one famous Azeri professor tweeted that there will be ‘no more Armenian words in #Karabakh‘ in reference to the success of Azerbaijan’s military campaign in Nagorno-Artsakh.
Azerbaijan’s disregard for ICJ and the European Court of Human Rights orders to open the Lachin Corridor further highlights the alarming situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. Indeed, over 470 European NGOs are urging the EU to end the illegal blockade. The European Parliament has already passed a resolution denouncing Azerbaijan’s blockade of the Lachin Corridor. Notably, Azerbaijan’s imposed ‘peace agreement’ does not protect the right of Armenians to live freely in their native lands and can only be accurately viewed as unjust.
Significantly, in August 2023, former Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno Ocampo, concluded in his report that the events unfolding in Nagorno-Karabakh should be classified as a Genocide against the ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh under Article II (c) of the Genocide Convention. This article pertains to ‘deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.’
The weight of existing evidence squarely places Azerbaijan as the perpetrator of the mass starvation and deportation that afflicted 120,000 Armenians in Artsakh as a means of ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh.
It’s time for targeted accountability and an unwavering pursuit of justice.
We sincerely hope that, upon gaining a deeper understanding of the harrowing circumstances faced by the people of Artsakh, you may reconsider your attendance at this conference. By taking this stance, you will stand in solidarity with the oppressed and make a resounding statement that the international community condemns the suffering and deaths of innocent civilians.
By looking into the grave events unfolding in Artsakh, we implore you to join us in denouncing these flagrant acts of aggression and war-mongering. Such actions, where innocent lives are systematically endangered, and entire communities are pushed to the brink of annihilation, must never be tolerated in our modern world.
Although adopting a stance of condemnation through the choice of non-attendance at the IAC 2023 may come with potential repercussions to your international business ventures, as Azerbaijan would likely view such a move unfavourably and unleash its fury on you for many years, it will be evident to the international community that you value upholding human rights and safeguarding dignity. Indeed, such a decision will be remembered by the indigenous peoples of Artsakh and well-documented in the annals of history. As Elie Weisel, a well-renowned political activist and Holocaust survivor, famously noted, ‘We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.‘ The decision to not attend the IAC 2023 will testify to your commitment to justice, peace, and protecting vulnerable populations in adversity.
Yours sincerely,
NeverAgain1915.org