Christians are urging the organizers of the Paris 2024 Olympics to exclude Azerbaijan from the Games after the oil-rich oligarchy ordered the ethnic cleansing of Armenian Christians out of their ancient homeland of Nagorno Karabakh. Though the Games are already underway, the protest continues unabated.

In September 2023, Azerbaijani forces carried a lightning offensive on Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as the Republic of Artsakh, forcing virtually the entire population of over 120,000 indigenous Christians to flee to neighboring Armenia.

“There is no place for genocide at the Olympics!” read a strongly worded July 19 appeal from Christian Solidarity International (CSI), a human rights organization with consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

“After Russia invaded Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee barred Russia and Belarus from sending national teams to the 2024 Olympics. Russian and Belarusian athletes may compete as neutrals, but not under their country’ flag. The IOC should apply the same standard to Azerbaijan.”

Azerbaijan Threatens Invasion of Armenia

CSI warned that Azerbaijan is now threatening to invade the Republic of Armenia itself and has been confirmed to be holding at least 23 Armenian hostages—but the true figure may be as high as 100, CSI reported.

Azerbaijan’s Shiite Muslim dictatorship, led by President Ilham Aliyev, directly controls Azerbaijan’s National Olympic Committee, an act which violates the Olympic Charter, CSI complained.

In November 2023, Azerbaijan unleashed a disinformation campaign through fake websites and social media seeking to discredit France’s reputation to host the 2024 Paris Olympics, according to reports obtained by CSI.

French digital intelligence services detected 91 accounts that, between July 26 and 27, made 1,600 posts with photos calling for the boycott of the Olympic Games.

Genocide Warning

On July 17, CSI president Dr. John Eibner wrote to IOC President Thomas Bach, noting that CSI and nine other NGOs had issued a Genocide Warning regarding Nagorno Karabakh in December 2022 at the onset of Azerbaijan’s aggressions.

“The blockade and military campaign were likewise described as an act of genocide by the first Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo,” Eibner stated.

He quoted a comprehensive report jointly prepared by Freedom House, International Partnership for Human Rights, Democracy Development Foundation, Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly — Vanadzor, Protection of Rights without Borders, Law Development and Protections Foundation, and Truth Hounds.

According to the report, “The evidence demonstrates that the Azerbaijani state acted upon a comprehensive, methodically implemented strategy to empty Nagorno-Karabakh of its ethnic Armenian population and historical and cultural presence.”

In a second letter to Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Eibner pointed out that the president of Azerbaijan’s National Olympic Committee, Ilham Aliyev, is also the “dictatorial president of the Republic of Azerbaijan itself,” who “order[ed] a military invasion” of Nagorno Karabakh “after imposing a devastating nine-month blockade of its Armenian Christian population.”

“Ilham Aliyev’s Azerbaijan is no less deserving of such punitive measures,” Eibner said. “To do otherwise sends powerful messages to Olympian dictators, like Ilham Aliyev, that they can commit atrocity crimes with impunity unless the G7 consortium finds them unacceptable.”

International Protests

Last week, Christians under the banner “Disciples of Christ” protested outside Azerbaijan’s embassy in London, demanding justice for the persecuted Armenian Christians and calling for an end to the “global genocide of Christians.” Media celebrity and Old Catholic priest Fr. Calvin Robinson featured prominently in the protest.

Meanwhile, William Wolfe, executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership, tweeted his support for the persecuted Armenians on July 25 after meeting with Asatur Nahapetyan, the head of the Armenian Baptist Union.

Wolfe urged Southern Baptists in the U.S. to support the Armenian Baptists “during these tenuous times in their country as they live under the threat of continued aggression and persecution from the Azeri Muslims.”

According to Pastor Nahapetyan, Armenian Baptists are the second largest denomination in the nation after the official state church of the Armenian Apostolic Church, with 110 congregations.

“The Baptists have not been exempt from suffering at the hands of the Azerbaijani-instigated genocide in the Nagorno Karabakh region,” Wolfe noted. “Asatur (Nahapetyan) said they had four Baptist churches in that region, though now all Christians have been forcibly driven from it.

“Baptists have been in Armenia for at least 200 years, and in fact they planted the very first Baptist church in the then-Russian Empire in territorial Armenia in 1889.”

Meanwhile, on July 25 Azerbaijan threatened to take large-scale military action against Armenia in response to what it called “provocations” along the border between the two countries, said Ani Badalyan, spokesman for the Republic of Armenia Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Armenian government continues to adhere to the peace agenda and will not deviate from this strategy, Badalyan stressed. “Armenia has no other purpose than to protect its internationally recognized territory in the field of defense and security.”

Armenia is one of the oldest Christians countries in the world. Around 300 AD, it became the first nation to officially adopt Christianity.

 

Dr. Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.