Armenia honours Luis Moreno Ocampo

Not quite the same limelight as at the start of last year when the film Argentina, 1985 portraying his exploits convicting military juntas was a hot favourite to win an Oscar but on January 5 (Christmas Eve for Orthodox churches) Luis Moreno Ocampo was a welcome guest at the Armenian Embassy where Ambassador Hovhannes Virabyan pinned a Medal of Gratitude on his lapel.

Why the gratitude? For using his prestige as the first chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to bring attention to the escalating Azeri aggression against Nagorno Karabakh as from 2022, a full year before the Armenian enclave was finally overrun last September. A month beforehand Moreno Ocampo had issued a report on “Genocide against Armenians in 2023,” not hesitating to use the G-word when others might describe the Azeri invasion of Nagorno Karabakh as the hardly less serious ethnic cleansing – at his acceptance speech in the Embassy, Moreno Ocampo only regretted that his report had come too late to bring United States attention to the danger in time, a danger continuing into the present and future because Baku constantly describes Armenia as “Western Azerbaijan.”

Beginning with praise of Armenians worldwide as a uniquely talented diaspora and ending with a quote from Martin Luther King: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” Moreno Ocampo centred his speech entirely on Nagorno Karabakh.

The medal presentation was accompanied by a short video to mark the occasion from Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan himself and followed by a reception offering Armenian delicacies.