Date: 30 January 2024 at 4pm CET
You can register here: https://forms.gle/PfqHond7wtxCiBSc9

In the unprovoked 2020 war, in the large-scale attack of September 2022, and in numerous military border incursions, Armenia and its territory became a direct military target of Azerbaijan. Since
2020, 145,000 Karabakh Armenians have become refugees in Armenia, many of whom arrived after the Azerbaijani war for the complete conquest of Karabakh in September 2023. A forced expulsion of the entire Karabakh population took place.

Except for the French authorities, Western governments and international organizations issued at best half-hearted, but essentially meaningless statements. The refugee population and the government of Armenia are facing this humanitarian crisis with very limited international support. Moreover, European states have a direct responsibility in the tragic fate of Armenians, as they financed the attacks by buying
Azerbaijani oil and gas without any preconditions. For two decades Azerbaijan was using those petrodollars to prepare for war.

Europe can act now to insist on and ensure the sovereignty of the Armenian state, the preservation of Armenian Christian cultural heritage, now under Azerbaijani control and threatened by destruction. Europe should also insist on the return of Karabakh Armenians to their land, to live there in dignity and security, and thus, restore its own values, so much questioned today. Without decisive political and economic support from Europe and international institutions committed to the enforcement of international law and human rights standards, the future of Armenia itself is under direct and imminent threat.

The goal of the webinar is to give direct information to an EU audience about Armenia and the
Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh. The idea is furthermore to articulate a few concrete demands to
the European institutions in the wake of the forthcoming European elections.

Coordinator and Convener:
• Professor Vicken Cheterian, University of Geneva, Switzerland


Experts from Armenia:
• Mr. Tigran Grigoryan, expert on NK and head of the Regional Center for Democracy and
Security based in Yerevan, Armenia
• Mrs. Anahide Pilibossian, Vice President of Strategy and Development of the Applied Policy
Research Institute of Armenia
• Fr. Garegin Hambardzumyan, Principal at Gevorgian Theological Seminary of Holy Etchmiadzin
of the Armenian Apostolic Church


…plus
• Professor Regina Elsner, Professor for Eastern Churches and Ecumenical Theology at the
University of Münster/Germany
• Mrs. Amandine Sabourin, Policy Officer at the European Centre for Development Policy
Management

The webinar is organized by Justice and Peace Europe, a network of the Catholic Church.