Minister draws attention to plight of Armenians of Nagorno-Karabak

On Dec. 12, 2022, Azerbaijan imposed a blockade on the Armenians of Artsakh, also called Nagorno-Karabakh. The 120,000 Armenian residents are prevented from receiving food, medicine, fuel and other vital goods which would normally pass through the Lachin Corridor, the only land route that connects Armenians with the outside world. The situation worsens every day the blockade continues.

The government of Azerbaijan, a very repressive and despotic regime, has long promoted official hatred toward Armenians and has repeated threats to conquer not only Artsakh, but also Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, and other regions of Armenia by force, which it claims is “Western Azerbaijan.”

Artsakh was arbitrarily handed over to the Soviet province of Azerbaijan by Joseph Stalin in 1923 when he was Commissar of Nationality Affairs for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. He promoted a “divide and conquer” strategy of destabilizing non-Russian states in order to suppress any rising nationalism among the various ethnic groups that comprised the burgeoning Communist country. Stalin made this decision despite the fact that Artsakh had been overwhelmingly Armenian for 2500 years, never during that extensive time having a population less than 75% Armenian. At the time of its transition to Azerbaijan, it was 95% Armenian. It is part of the core historic Armenian homeland. Artsakh was referred to as a province of Armenia by such ancient authors as Strabo, Pliny the Elder, Ptolemy, and Plutarch. During the breakup of the Soviet Union, Artsakh declared its independence in a democratically held referendum in 1991 in which the vote was over 99% in favor. This was before Azerbaijan declared its independence and became a nation.

Azerbaijani armed forces attacked the peaceful Armenian residents of Artsakh on Sept. 27, 2020. They were assisted by corrupt Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s military with armed drones, heavy artillery, rocket systems, and special forces. About 5000 Armenian fighters and civilians were killed during the 44-Day War with 30,000 Armenian residents of Artsakh permanently settling in Armenia to escape the conflict. Armenian churches, schools, hospitals, and civilian homes were targeted. Numerous verified cases were reported of Azerbaijani soldiers mutilating dead bodies, beheading and executing both combatants and civilians, and using banned weapons, such as cluster bombs and white phosphorus gas.

Over the decades, Azerbaijan has destroyed some of the area’s holiest Christian sites. It has been actively promoting a campaign of Armenian cultural erasure, as it has done in Nakhichevan — an Azerbaijani exclave bordering Turkey, Armenia, and Iran--where over 50,000 Armenians lived in 1920, but which today bears no trace of Armenian heritage or population. Hatred for Armenians is formally taught to Azerbaijani children in the schools.

Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev has made clear that he desires a passageway, the Zangezur Corridor, to go through Armenia, a sovereign nation, that will connect Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan “whether Armenia wants it or not. If Armenia wants it, then the issue will be resolved easier. If it does not want it, we will decide it by force. Just as before and during the [44-Day War], I said that they must leave our lands, or we will expel them by force. And so it happened. The same will be the fate of the Zangezur Corridor.” Aliyev continued his fanatical anti-Armenian animosity by stating, “Yerevan is our historical territory, and we, Azerbaijanis, must return to this historical land. This is our political and strategic goal, which we must gradually approach.”

The International Court of Justice in The Hague on Feb. 22 ordered that Azerbaijan should “take all measures at its disposal to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.” Nevertheless to this date Azerbaijan has refused, establishing that it does not consider itself part of the civilized world, refusing the decision of the highest court on the planet, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.

The World Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches denounced the blockade by Azerbaijan of Artsakh as a violation, among other things, “of international humanitarian and human rights law ... creating a humanitarian emergency for the 120,000 ethnic Armenian residents of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh,” and “trying to terrorize ethnic Armenians into abandoning their ancient homeland.”

The siege of Artsakh could be the next stage of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923, during which the Ottoman Turkish government systematically planned and implemented the murder of 1,500,000 Armenian men, women, and children, a heinous crime still denied by Turkey and its accomplice, the Azerbaijanis.

Deputy Director of the French newspaper Le Figaro Jean-Christophe Buisson said, “The Azerbaijanis don’t respect the living or dead, yesterday in Nakhichevan, today in Artsakh, tomorrow in Armenia.” He tweeted, “Under the leadership of Aliyev they have one goal, to erase the Armenian people, their faith, their history, their heritage, their identity. Who will stop them?”

This hatred toward Armenians has reached the United States. Spread across utility poles throughout Beverly Hills, California, during the last weekend of Jan. 2023 were flyers that threatened: “Azerbaijan, Turkey, Pakistan . . . WILL WIPE Armenia OFF the MAP Inshallah [if God wills]!!!!” Beverly Hills Mayor Lili Bosse immediately denounced the flyers as did several local, state, and federal officials. It’s a shame that no condemnation of the flyers has been publicized by any Azerbaijani, Turkish, or Pakistani group or individual from that area.

Though President Biden courageously stood for the truth and acknowledged the Armenian Genocide on April 24, 2021, he then loosened Section 907, a law that restricted military assistance to the government of Azerbaijan. The subsequent arms sales to Azerbaijan emboldened them to attack the Armenians of Artsakh and triumph over them in the 44-Day War.

Azerbaijan clearly desires to remove the Armenian population from Artsakh. It hopes that the growing suffering of Armenians will compel them to conclude that they have no future there. The Armenians of Artsakh are facing a situation where they might be forced to leave their native soil to survive. This is a form of genocide.

The Rev. Dr. Gary Shahinian is the intentional interim minister of the Federated Church of Charlton (United Church of Christ and Unitarian Universalist Association). He is also an Instructor in the WISE program of Assumption University.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Minister draws attention to plight of Armenians of Nagorno-Karabak