This campaign calls on the Gernika Award committee to reconsider and retract its decision to award Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev the 2026 Gernika Award for Peace and Reconciliation.

Awarding a “peace and reconciliation” prize to a petro-dictator responsible for the ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) is not only insensitive, it is indefensible.

In September 2023, over 120,000 Armenians were forcibly displaced from Artsakh after nearly 10 months of blockade, starvation, and deprivation of basic necessities, followed by a military assault on civilian infrastructure. These events culminated in the forced exodus of the entire Armenian population.

At the same time, Armenian civilians and democratically elected political leaders were captured and remain illegally detained in Azerbaijan. Today, 16 Armenian hostages are being subjected to sham trials on fabricated charges in a system that weaponizes the law to suppress and control.

This reality exists alongside an openly authoritarian system, where dissent is suppressed, independent media is restricted, and Armenophobic rhetoric and territorial claims against Armenia are actively promoted. The outcome in Artsakh has been publicly celebrated in dehumanizing terms, while cultural heritage is destroyed, Armenian territory remains occupied, and coercive demands are imposed under the threat of renewed war.

Peace cannot be built through coercion, displacement, occupation, or the continued detention of hostages. It cannot be dictated by the aggressor while the consequences of mass violence remain unaddressed.

By granting this award, the Gernika Award risks legitimizing these violations and undermining the very principles it claims to uphold.

Send a letter demanding that this award be reconsidered and retracted. Act now.