Artsakh Ethnic Cleansing

Faces of Persecution: Genocide 2.0 [Artsakh Ethnic Cleansing] exposes the chilling reality of how the Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh)  territorial conflict uprooted the world’s oldest Christian community. In a poignant tribute to the remarkable resilience of the human spirit, the episode sheds light on the ancient history of the first Christian population who after nurturing an autonomous, fledgling democratic republic for over millennia were ethnically cleansed and forcibly displaced in September 2023 by the Petrocrat Azerbaijan regime. Weaving a historical backdrop through interviews with historians, humanitarian experts, and compelling testimonies of survivors of the atrocities of war, the film reveals how 120,000 indigenous Christian Armenians endured three unprovoked wars, thousands of fatalities, the destruction of property and religious cultural heritage sites amidst a 10-month-long starvation siege waged by Azerbaijan–transforming into refugees.
Genocide 2.0: Artsakh Ethnic Cleansing is made possible with support from the Cultural Impact Foundation in collaboration with the Vahe Fattal Foundation

SIZZLE REEL

CAST

Luis Moreno Ocampo

First Prosecutor, International Criminal Court (2003- 2012)
“It’s a Genocide because Azerbaijan blocked the food and essentials to Nagorno-Karabakh and then, they bombed them –removing the entire population from Nagorno-Karabakh, that‘s genocide by the book.”

Ambassador Sam Brownback:

Former Ambassador At Large, International Religious Freedom. 

Kansas Governor, and U.S. Senator 

“Whenever a society allows a genocidal spirit to take root within them it hurts that society and you‘ve got to deal with this or you‘re not going to move forward–and this will hurt Azerbaijan, and this will hurt Turkey–this kind of neo-Ottoman Empire that Erdogan is pushing.”
Baroness Caroline Cox
Member, British House of Lords
Founder, Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART)
“They would take the prisoner’s phones and they would film them, and they would send that film back to the families, so the families got their horrendous pictures of their sons or husbands or fathers being tortured and slaughtered.”
Tigran Petrosyan
Forcibly Displaced Cinematographer
“Then I heard about the gas depot explosion – my son was unrecognizable. He was completely burned.”
Simon Meghakyan, PhD Candidate
Security and Defence Studies/Heritage Crime
Cranfield University
“Since the collapse of the USSR the government of Azerbaijan has deliberately destroyed well over 28,000 sacred Armenian monuments. In an October 2020
address to his nation, Azerbaijan‘s president said that he would chase the Armenians like dogs –there will be no traces of them left on those lands.”

David L Phillips
Adjunct Professor, Conflict Resolution and Mediation, Georgetown University
Director, Program on Peace-building and Rights, Columbia University
“When they target churches, when cemeteries are rated, and tombstones are destroyed – it‘s an example of state sponsored terror.”

Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan

Primate, Diocese of Artsakh Armenian Apostolic Church
“In 2020 Azerbaijan bombed the Holy Saviour Cathedral with two precision missiles. I think their goal is to eliminate us as a people.”

Siranush Sargsyan
Forcibly Displaced Independent Journalist
“We read and heard a lot about hell, but now we have seen that hell, that hell was that depot explosion with all its consequences.”

Judge Gassia Apkarian
California State Jurist Orange County, CA
“When you starve people for 10 months and then you shell and bomb them, and then you open the border to Armenia– of course they‘re going to flee.”

Michael Rubin
Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Director of Policy Analysis, Middle East Forum (MEF) 
“Armenia is the oldest Christian country on earth, and Artsakh–Nagorno Karabakh– was always the heart of Armenia.”

Anahit Gevorkyan
Forcibly displaced mother/Artsakh war refugee
“I lost my 8-year-old Victoria to Azeri drone bombing, and my 2-year-old son Ardzvig, suffered grave shrapnel wounds, and serious head injuries–the pain is unbearable.”

Thomas Becker, Ph.D
Legal and Policy Director
University Network for Human Rights
“There are videos online of Azerbaijani forces beheading people, torturing, mutilating them…cutting off fingers and stuffing them in their mouth, stuffing stones in corpses’ eyes.”

Karnig Kerkonian
International Lawyer
“Azerbaijan has made clear that its intent is to destroy the Artsakh Armenian people. So no return is feasible. In fact, a return is absurd if it doesn’t come with international protection. And it’s not the first time in history that has happened. But it requires the acknowledgement of international actors and international institutions to realize what Azerbaijan did and is doing to the Christian Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia.”

Joel Veldkamp, PhD
International Communications Officer
Christian Solidarity International
“Behind me you can see something like 30 or 40 trucks full of humanitarian aid, food, medicine– in that direction, where we‘re not allowed to point our camera, is Nagorno-Karabakh where people are literally dying of hunger right now.”