California Democratic Party Betrays Armenian-Americans

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Truth And Accountability League (TAAL) Condemns the California Democratic Party (CADEM) for Artsakh Genocide Denial, Revisionism, Whitewashing, and For Politicizing the Suffering of Armenians

CADEM’s Resolutions Committee Participates in the Denial of the Most Egregious Crimes Against Humanity Being Committed on the Identity of Nearly a Million Armenians Residing in California

‘Let me be clear. Azerbaijan’s invasion of Artsakh in 2020, followed by its blockade, and consequent military offensive in 2023 that ethnically cleansed the indigenous Armenians from their homeland of millennia was genocide. CADEM is turning its nose up to renowned international genocide experts and leading organizations and is facilitating the last act of genocide, which is denial, and Azerbaijan’s ongoing cultural genocide of everything Armenian,’ said Vic Gerami, TAAL Founder.

Truth And Accountability League (TAAL) condemns the California Democratic Party and its Resolutions Committee for Artsakh Genocide denial, revisionism, and for politicizing the suffering of almost a million 1.3 million Armenian-Americans who call California home, and the Armenian diaspora worldwide.

TAAL and advocates for human rights and justice within the California Democratic Party are expressing deep concern and outrage after the Party’s Resolutions Committee rejected a resolution unequivocally condemning the ongoing genocide of Armenians in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). The resolution, titled ‘NEVER AGAIN: CONDEMNING THE GENOCIDE IN ARTSAKH AND CALLING FOR JUSTICE,’ was originally submitted with precise, well-documented language. Yet the Committee’s revisions not only obscured the reality of the genocide but introduced factual inaccuracies that minimize and distort the severity of the crimes being committed.

Matter at Hand

Three California State Delegates, Vic Gerami AD 44, Dr. Kev Abazajian, AD 73, and Dr. Suzie Abajian, AD 52, authored a resolution, ‘NEVER AGAIN: CONDEMNING THE GENOCIDE IN ARTSAKH AND CALLING FOR JUSTICE,’ and submitted it to the California Democratic Party (CADEM) Resolutions Committee Chairs, Kenneth Armstrong, Agi Kessler, and member Andrew Lachman to be considered at the party’s December 2024 meeting.

This collective resolution was the end result of similar resolutions having been submitted by the aforementioned authors in the span of two years, which were rejected by the committee. CADEM refuses to accurately categorize the Artsakh Genocide and demanded the word ‘genocide’ be removed from the resolution.

When a political organization that professes to support and uphold the rights of individuals' to justice, equity,  a life without fear of hate crime and violence, opportunities for an excellent education (which would include compatibility with historic truths, past and present), and many more honorable  claims, takes a hostile stance against endorsing a resolution that condemns an ongoing Genocide, an unsettling picture starts to appear. a picture that stands in stark contrast to the proclaimed philosophy of the organization. 

When select committee members of CADEM, choose to dismiss the assessments of leading international Genocide experts in regards to the invasion of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabagh) by the criminal and corrupt regime of Azerbaijan, committing the most heinous crimes against humanity by massacring, torturing, displacing the millennia-old indigenous Armenians of Artsakh, basically committing a modern-day Genocide under the watch of all humanity, one begins to question what is the motivation of standing against justice.

What do the CADEM deniers of the factuality of the Artsakh Genocide have to gain by taking such an aggressive position against the only accurate descriptor of Aliyev regime's atrocities by demanding that the word Genocide be omitted, by distorting documented truths, by dismissing experts?  Only one plausible reason starts to rise up to the surface of this stench-ridden position - support of certain ‘strategic allies’ in the region of the Baku genocidal regime who have much to gain through access to cheap Azeri oil, massive weapons' sales and other "dirty" geopolitical advantages.

Original Resolution (Summary)

The resolution detailed the historical context of Artsakh as an ancestral Armenian homeland. It underscored the Armenians’ right to self-determination, recognized by international principles.

It referenced a landmark August 7, 2023, report by Luis Moreno Ocampo, the first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, which declared an ongoing genocide against Armenians in Artsakh. This declaration has been corroborated by multiple reputable bodies, including the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, Genocide Watch, and the International Association of Genocide Scholars.

The resolution condemned the genocidal attacks launched by Azerbaijan, which have resulted in ethnic cleansing and the forced displacement of over 100,000 Armenians. It demanded accountability for the perpetrators and affirmed the right of Armenians to return safely to their indigenous homeland.

Committee’s Inaccurate Revisions

In revising the resolution, the Resolutions Committee altered a central ‘WHEREAS’ clause to falsely suggest that Mr. Moreno Ocampo merely “warned” of a potential genocide, rather than stated unequivocally that a genocide was already underway. This mischaracterization contradicts the opening sentence of Mr. Ocampo’s report, which reads: “There is an ongoing Genocide against 120,000 Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh.’

Further, the Committee’s changes to the resolution’s “RESOLVED” clauses soften the clear condemnation of the perpetrators. By implying that “all parties” must adhere to the rules of war, the revised language morally equates victim and perpetrator, veiling the ongoing genocide under the guise of mutual responsibility. This approach fails to acknowledge a fundamental truth: one side is committing genocide, and the other is enduring it. From the Authors’ Response to the Committee:

In an email to the Resolutions Committee, the authors of the original resolution stated, ‘If this Resolutions Committee seeks to participate in the denial of the most egregious crime against humanity… it must also be willing to be set in the records of history as being complicit. Anything short of the proper, factual declaration of this genocide… is an effort by this Committee at hiding and manufacturing consent… Silence during the clear genocide of Armenians is complicity.’

The authors have made it clear they refuse to accept the Committee’s altered language, as doing so would obscure the historical record, fail to reflect the established facts of the genocide, and betray the fundamental values of human rights and justice that the Democratic Party claims to uphold.

Artsakh

Artsakh has for millennia been an integral part of historic Armenia and has never been a part of independent Azerbaijan. Dating back to the 9-6th century BCE, the region was governed by various Armenian kingdoms, and in the 17th Century, it was annexed by the Russian Empire. In 1921, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin gave the newly formed Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic a sinister gift. Responding to economic blackmail from oil-rich Azerbaijan and Turkish threats of aggression, Stalin thumbed his nose at international law and his own country’s Bureau of the Communist Party, which—just a day earlier—had confirmed Artsakh’s rightful status as part of Armenia. In 1921, Stalin placed Artsakh under the administration of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic as an autonomous oblast.

Artsakh, however, remained demographically Armenian and preserved its autonomous status despite widespread oppression and discrimination at the hands of Soviet Azerbaijan. On December 10, 1991, the population of Artsakh declared the establishment of the Artsakh Republic by plebiscite. Taking care to fully comply with both international law and globally accepted democratic norms as well as the letter and spirit of the USSR’s own laws of that time, the act was widely seen as legally binding. Thus, on the territory of the former Azerbaijani SSR two equal states were created: Artsakh Republic and the Republic of Azerbaijan. Artsakh’s declaration of independence further increased Azerbaijan’s persecution of the Armenians and its aim to ethnically cleanse Armenians reached its peak.

Artsakh Genocide

Between September 2020 and September 2023, the state of Azerbaijan committed the Artsakh Genocide. On September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan, with help from Turkiye, Russia, and Israel, and hired jihadist mercenaries from Syria, Libya, and Pakistan invaded the Republic of Artsakh, also known by its Soviet name, Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan released the monstrous firepower of humanity’s latest, most sophisticated battlefield technology, including illegal and banned weapons, supplied by Turkiye, Russia, and Israel massacred 5,000+ indigenous Armenians and occupied 90% of Artsakh.

On November 9, 2020, Russia brokered a ceasefire agreement that Azerbaijan has broken many times since and made it null and void. Then Azerbaijan unleashed a violent and deadly campaign to frighten Armenians to leave Artsakh. What was left of Artsakh was surrounded by the Azerbaijani military, who routinely fired and killed Armenians, invaded and burned their homes, and committed other crimes against humanity.

Starting on December 12, 2022, Azerbaijan blockaded Artsakh in an attempt to force the Armenians to flee their native lands and take over the region. Aliyev’s government ordered a group of fake self-styled environmental activists set up a roadblock on the Lachin corridor, the sole overland route linking the region with Armenia. Many of these so-called activists were later revealed to be connected with the Azerbaijani government. In the next nine months, Azerbaijan attempted to starve Armenians and drive them out of Artsakh.

On September 19, Azerbaijan began bombardment of Artsakh and intentionally shelled civilian towns. In a September 5 report, ‘Risk Factors and Indicators of the Crime of Genocide in the Republic of Artsakh, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention stated, ‘The total blockade of Artsakh civilians from access to the outside world led to the complete interruption of any imports through the Lachin Corridor. Russian peacekeepers and the International Committee of the Red Cross were also forbidden from providing external relief supplies. This left Artsakh’s 120,000 civilians—including approximately 30,000 children—with rapidly dwindling stocks of food, medicine, baby formula and other indispensable supplies that could not be produced on the ground, rendering them vulnerable to illness and starvation.’

On 22 February 2023, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered provisional measures to ensure that Azerbaijan ends the blockade of the Lachin Corridor. However, on 23 April 2023, Azerbaijani forces illegally installed a checkpoint in the Lachin Corridor, at the Hakari Bridge.

Following Azerbaijan’s illegal, cruel, and inhumane blockade of Artsakh that deprived the region’s 120,000 civilians, including 30,000 children of food, medicine, and other necessities for more than nine months, on September 19th Azerbaijan launched an unprovoked military offensive on Artsakh in an attempt to subjugate the region’s ethnically Armenian population by force. Following a 24-hour assault that saw the displacement of several thousand civilians and more than 200 deaths, Artsakh’s authorities chose to disarm to avoid further bloodshed. The remaining 120,000 Armenians fled to Armenia as refugees.

On November 17, 2023, the International Court of Justice ordered Azerbaijan to ensure the ‘safe and unimpeded’ return of individuals who left Artsakh after September 19, when Azerbaijan launched a massive attack on Artsakh forcing the exodus of more than 120,000 Armenians from their homes. But Azerbaijan ignored this new demand from the ICJ too.

Yes, it’s Genocide

Leading international genocide prevention organizations and experts have concluded that Azerbaijan committed genocide against the Armenians of Artsakh. On September 29, 2023, Genocide Watch published Genocide and Forced Deportation: Nagorno-Karabakh. On August 7, 23, Luis Moreno Ocampo, the founding prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, published his expert opinion, Genocide against Armenians in 2023, in September 2024, the International Association of Genocide Scholars passed a comprehensive resolution which among other measures, stated, the ‘blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh as genocide.’ Then on December 12, 2024, O'Brien, president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars reaffirmed her position by calling it genocide. On September 19, 2024, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention published On the One Year Anniversary of the Artsakh Genocide. 

Politicization of the Genocide Label: Genocide Rhetoric at CADEM

Armenians are going through an unpleasant DeJa’Vu , due to ‘Blue State California’ dirty politics. It took the United States Congress hundred and four years to recognize the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and two additional years for the president to recognize it. This, despite nearly thirty nations which had already recognized it, including France, Switzerland, Russia, Canada, and others, and despite the overwhelming evidence readily available to those who wished to know the truth. But politics over human rights played out for years while the Armenian community faced an uphill battle for recognition.

Now, CADEM manipulates language and ambiguously frames the Artsakh Genocide with rhetoric and euphemisms to avoid recognizing the Artsakh Genocide.

A Call for Moral Clarity and Responsibility

By refusing to properly name and condemn the ongoing genocide, the Resolutions Committee risks positioning the California Democratic Party on the wrong side of history. The Party must rectify this grave oversight. Recognizing the facts is not only a moral obligation but a legal and humanitarian duty, in line with the principles of genocide prevention enshrined in international law.

As violence continues and credible experts repeatedly confirm that genocide is taking place, silence or misrepresentation enables continued atrocities. The California Democratic Party must stand in solidarity with the victims, acknowledge the truth, and demand justice. Nothing less than full, factual recognition of the genocide against Armenians in Artsakh will suffice.

With the irrefutable facts documented, studied, assessed and litigated in the case of the most recent crimes against humanity committed against the indigenous Armenians of Artsakh by the genocidal Aliyev regime, it would behoove the California Democratic Party to right its own wrongs in this case, and make the only moral and just decision of standing on the right side of history while the blank pages of today's history are being written in real time for future generations to learn from. 

About TAAL

TAAL is a 501©3 non-profit advocacy organization founded in 2020 due to a significant increase in anti-Armenian racism, defamation, hate crimes, and Armenophobia. We monitor and confront bias, disinformation, propaganda, and slander of the Armenian people and culture at the media level, including social media, academics, intelligentsia, and public policy.

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