Overview

In Sadistic Pleasures, an independent journalist documents the true stories of torture, pain, and merciless psychological abuse endured by 14 Armenian soldiers and civilians who became prisoners of war in Azerbaijan during the Forty-Four Day War in 2020 for control of the autonomous Republic of Artsakh. This book contains their first-hand memoirs of what goes on behind enemy lines, hidden from the scrutiny of the United Nations and international human rights organizations. The testimonies of these brave POWs reveal the mindsets of the perpetrators of heinous war crimes during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War-ordinary people who are motivated by generations of political indoctrination of hatred for Armenians. They expose an international epidemic of racism and bigotry behind this humanitarian crisis in the Turkic world that must be overcome through free journalism and public reporting before peace can ever return to this disputed territory. Additionally, these historic interviews are framed by a historical overview of how the dispute over Artsakh arose. Included here is the region's ancient past, Stalin's reassignment of the region to Azerbaijan during the Soviet Union, the near-unanimous declaration of independence in 1991, the First Nagorno-Karabakh War that followed, and the 26 years of frozen conflict with Armenia since.

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9781945884566

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Reviews

Sadistic Pleasures... offers devastating insights into the dynamics of violence defined by a national hatred handed down over many generations, by distrust of one's neighbor, driven by the need for revenge. Reading this book highlights the chasms of violence to which nationalism leads and invites us to empathize with the victims. It also demonstrates the helplessness of human rights organizations in the face of perpetrators who are determined to dehumanize those at their mercy, to cause them lasting physical and psychological harm. This book prompts us to make an emphatic commitment to humanity and sincere adherence to the principles of international humanitarian law. Sadistic Pleasures is an indispensable source, valuable documentation from which to draw a sense of the inexplicable. -Dr. Mihran Dabag, The Institute for Diaspora and Genocide Studies Arakelyan portrays the victims who were targeted because of their identity and not because of their personality: targeted because they were Armenians. These individual stories tell the reader about hatred of the Armenian ethnicity, that the victims were victimized not because of their goodness or malice but because they belonged to a certain group of people. They tell of the physical and psychological damage the victims suffered during their captivity. This publication is not only an important documentation of individual fates but also a source of evidence of international crimes committed before, during, and after the Forty-Four Day War in Artsakh in 2020. -Dr. Gurgen Petrossian, LLM (Heidelberg), Senior Researcher, Head of International Criminal Law Research Group at Friedrich-Alexander Erlangen-Nuremberg University, Chairman of German-Armenian Lawyers' Association

"""Sadistic Pleasures... offers devastating insights into the dynamics of violence defined by a national hatred handed down over many generations, by distrust of one's neighbor, driven by the need for revenge. Reading this book highlights the chasms of violence to which nationalism leads and invites us to empathize with the victims. It also demonstrates the helplessness of human rights organizations in the face of perpetrators who are determined to dehumanize those at their mercy, to cause them lasting physical and psychological harm. This book prompts us to make an emphatic commitment to humanity and sincere adherence to the principles of international humanitarian law. Sadistic Pleasures is an indispensable source, valuable documentation from which to draw a sense of the inexplicable."" -Dr. Mihran Dabag, The Institute for Diaspora and Genocide Studies ""Arakelyan portrays the victims who were targeted because of their identity and not because of their personality: targeted because they were Armenians. These individual stories tell the reader about hatred of the Armenian ethnicity, that the victims were victimized not because of their goodness or malice but because they belonged to a certain group of people. They tell of the physical and psychological damage the victims suffered during their captivity. This publication is not only an important documentation of individual fates but also a source of evidence of international crimes committed before, during, and after the Forty-Four Day War in Artsakh in 2020."" -Dr. Gurgen Petrossian, LLM (Heidelberg), Senior Researcher, Head of International Criminal Law Research Group at Friedrich-Alexander Erlangen-Nuremberg University, Chairman of German-Armenian Lawyers' Association"

Author Information

Ashkhen Arakelyan is a journalist from the Syunik region of Armenia who studies communication and media at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. After finishing her Bachelor of Science at Yerevan State University, she moved to Germany in 2018, where she has been a scholar at the Hanns Seidel Foundation since 2020. In 2022, Ashkhen will graduate and pursue her master's degree in Germany. Her professional aspiration is to become a full-time conflict, war, and crisis reporter.Ashkhen's first book, Sadistic Pleasures: Silent Crimes of Azerbaijan, shares her on-the-ground interviews with surviving POWs of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War. It sheds light on hidden war crimes and human rights violations that continue to occur with little oversight or scrutiny from the global community.

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