Open letter from the Artsakh National Assembly Speaker to the US Vice President

Open Letter to the Honorable J. D. Vance
Vice President of the United States of America
Your Excellency,
I write to you as Chairman of the Parliament of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) to address an issue of grave humanitarian injustice and urgent political responsibility.
In September 2023, the entire Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh was forcibly expelled from its ancestral homeland. This was not a humanitarian evacuation, nor a voluntary departure. It was the predictable and deliberate outcome of prolonged blockade, coercion, and systematic intimidation, carried out in the complete absence of credible international protection. Within days, an indigenous population with millennia-old roots in the region was eradicated from its homeland.
Today, more than one hundred and fifty thousand Armenians live in displacement, stripped of their homes, their cultural and religious heritage, and their fundamental right to live safely on their own land. Despite the profound trauma of ethnic cleansing, their demand remains clear and unanimous: the right to return safely and permanently to Nagorno-Karabakh under internationally guaranteed conditions of security, dignity, and self-determination.
Any attempt to present the current situation as a foundation for peace is illusory. Peace imposed through force, demographic engineering, and the erasure of an entire people cannot be stable or just. Lasting peace in the South Caucasus requires accountability for grave violations of international law, the restoration of the rights of the displaced population, and concrete mechanisms enabling their voluntary and secure return.
Equally alarming are recent developments in Baku. Former political and military leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh have been sentenced to life imprisonment following proceedings that fall far short of even the most basic standards of due process. These politically motivated trials represent not justice, but retribution. As long as Armenian hostages remain unlawfully detained, any rhetoric about reconciliation or peace remains empty. Their immediate and unconditional release is indispensable.
The uncertain fate of persons missing as a result of the conflict remains a matter of deep and ongoing concern. This is a purely humanitarian issue, directly pertaining to the fundamental right of families to know the fate of their loved ones. In this context, we consider your active engagement, as well as that of relevant international bodies, to be crucial in establishing and implementing transparent and effective mechanisms to determine the fate of the missing.
The United States has historically positioned itself as a defender of human rights, international law, and the principle that borders and peace cannot be redrawn through force. We therefore call upon your leadership to move beyond expressions of concern and to actively support international measures that ensure accountability, protect displaced populations, and enable the safe return of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Failure to address this injustice risks entrenching a dangerous precedent: that ethnic cleansing can be rewarded with political normalization. Addressing it, by contrast, would send a powerful signal that peace, to be durable, must be rooted in justice, law, and human dignity.
Respectfully,
Ashot Danielyan
Chairman of the Parliament of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh)