Attorney Karnig Kerkonian’s remarks on September 16 in Washington, DC, at ANCA’s Capitol Hill gathering on Artsakh.

In September 1938, Neville Chamberlain, the British prime Minister, took a fateful trip to
Munich, Germany. The smell of war was in the air: Hitler had just taken the Sudetenland in
Czechoslovakia, and the startled Chamberlain scrambled to Germany, determined to get a peace
treaty with Hitler.
He got one, Hitler signed the Munich Treaty, in which Hitler was allowed to keep the
Sudetenland in exchange for not taking more. Chamberlain ran back to London, peace treaty in
hand.
There’s that famous picture of him standing in Piccadilly Circus or in front of 10 Downing,
waving the treaty in the air as the crowd cheered on. The Munich Peace Treaty polled really well
in 1938 in London. “Peace in our times”, you may recall, was the slogan.
Of course, it didn’t poll that well just a few months later. You see, Hitler had different plans for
Europe. He not only delivered war to Europe—he delivered genocide to Europe.
What Chamberlain missed—what he overlooked in his drunken pursuit of “peace” at all
costs—was to become the colossal lesson of the last century: appeasement does not work in the
face of genocidal intent.
And when there’s genocidal intent, appeasement only fuels the perpetrator; it doesn’t stop him.
The mistake that cost Chamberlain his prime ministership (Churchill soon unseated him)—and
cost over six million human beings their lives—was failing to recognize that a genocidal
regime will not stop at a peace treaty.
You see, the taking of the Sudetenland was the beginning of Hitler’s plans, not the end. Put a pin
in that for a second.
Fast forward to Washington just a few weeks ago. Forget about the gratuitous photo ops, selfies,
and competing Nobel peace prize nominations for a second, and think about what actually
happened.

We normalized Ilham Aliyev—the authoritarian dictator of Azerbaijan who refers to Armenians
as dogs, whose regime calls Armenians rats, vermin and a cancer that needs to cut out of society.
Whose government printed an official stamp of an exterminator in a hazmat suit exterminating
NK—before they actually did just that. A leader who himself posted a video on X, where he stood
in front of a bonfire stating that, now that he has rid Nagorno-Karabakh of the Armenian people,
he was going to burn away even the “aura” of the Armenians. A dictator who says Armenian
churches are not Armenian churches at all, but Albanian churches. Who then uses a pocket knife
to scrape away Armenian letters from the stone walls of Armenian churches, on video. A leader
whose military destroys Armenian altars and cross stones, executes hog-tied Armenian boys, cuts
off the ears of elderly Armenian victims in their own homes, and even saws off the heads of an
Armenian grandfather with a handheld dagger.
The International Court of Justice has said that Armenophobia comes from the highest levels of
the Azerbaijani government. It is a sponsored government policy. There is no question that
Ilham Aliyev harbors genocidal intent.
But it’s worse. You see, we’re not just ignoring his genocidal intent—we’re helping fund it in the
peace document initialed right here in Washington.
Let’s get rid of 907 and flood Aliyev with arms. Let’s ignore the Artsakh people’s right to return
to their homes. Let’s ignore the hostages languishing in Baku prisons. Hell, let’s fund a road that
cuts Armenia in half, takes away de facto control of Armenian territory from Armenians, and
puts it into the hands of a “private company”. Really? What could go wrong?
This is not a proper response to genocidal intent. It’s Azerbaijan’s dream scenario. It’s an outright
invitation to genocide.
Nagorno-Karabakh was Aliyev’s Sudetenland. It is not the end of his agenda. It’s the beginning.
Why would he stop? Would you?
The taking of Nagorno-Karabakh is the beginning of Aliyev’s goal to destroy the Armenian state
and with it the Christian Armenian people. Don’t take my word for it, take his: He has stated that
Armenia is not even a real country. In fact, he calls Armenia by another name: Western
Azerbaijan.
Chamberlain made this mistake in 1938. Waving that peace treaty in London to cheering crowd
willfully blind to Hitler’s genocidal intent.
For the Armenians? Sure, let’s keep cheering for “peace” while actually arming Aliyev. Let’s
initial peace terms while pretending he doesn’t have genocidal intent; while pretending POWs
and hostages don’t exist; while pretending he didn’t just wipe out an entire 4000 year old

Armenian civilization in Artsakh just over 600 days ago, after starving them to collapse for more
than nine months. Let’s just pretend all that never happened.
The problem, of course, with pretending is, well, it’s pretending, isn’t it? And at some point the
make-believe gives way, and the harsh reality hits us square in the face, head-on. There are
Armenians in this room who know full well what that reality is. What that truth is.
The truth is that the Armenian Genocide was the first phase of the destruction of the Armenian
people. The truth is that Nagorno-Karabakh was the second—and, if we choose not hold
Azerbaijan accountable this time, the truth is that the third phase will indeed be the final one.
And, I assure you, that that final phase will not be pretend at all.
You, seated here, are the bulwark that stands in the way of that agenda. You stand in the way of
the fairy tales. You stand in the way of the impunity. You stand in the way of the destruction.
You stand in the way of the erasure of the Armenian people and their homeland.
You stand on the side of the truth. And in that stand, no matter how long it takes, we will
continue to stand together.