A piece by me on the recent Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
(this piece was written / posted on social media on October 7th, 10 days into the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war).
This is a really old photo of my brother and I having an Armenian-style Barbeque ‘khorovadz’, back in 2003 (I am 8yrs old).
What is much older in this photo are the walls you can see in the background. These belong to Amaras [1], a monastery in Karabakh founded in the 4th Century AD, over 1,600 years ago. One of the earliest monasteries in the world and immensely significant to Armenian history as the site where the first-ever seminary school of Armenian language was established.
This monastery, and the many others in Karabakh, are permanent symbols of Armenian existence in a region that is currently fighting an all out war with Azerbaijan and Turkey — make no mistake. It’s a war against nations that, without even a shred of overstatement on my side, are ruled by tyrants who want nothing more than to wipe these cultural traces off the map forever. They would be the first to admit their phobia of Armenians [2], and have good experience [3] of destroying intangible Armenian culture. The fact that Turkey is so actively involved in recent events is an incredibly serious escalation [4].
Yet again I must profess my anger at the international reaction — especially the UK, where media coverage of it has been left wanting. As such I thank many non-Armenian friends who have reached out to me to share their concern and thoughts.
The international community has been very slow on the issue, so far sending half-hearted messages like “deeply concerned” or for “both sides to cease hostilities”. But it is abundantly clear to everyone who’s following who the aggressor is. Apart from Mr. Macron & Dutch parliament, Europe has faltered to condemn Azerbaijan — let’s not be naïve, many are finding it hard to speak with Baku’s oil choking their mouths.
And look where all this inaction has brought us: constant hourly shelling of Karabakh’s capital Stepanakert [5] using illegal cluster bombs, indiscriminately targeting civilians and destroying their homes (confirmed by Amnesty International [6]). Turkey is proven to be flying in jihadi terrorists from Syria and Libya(!) to fight and no one is stopping them (confirmed by Macron [7] and Russia Intelligence agency [8], & reported by Guardian [9]). Not to mention the countless deaths of soldiers on the front line — Karabakh is a heavily defended, mountainous region where battles are tit-for-tat and therefore the death rate is unfortunately, by its nature, severe. This is reality, and it is not acceptable. We should not accept this.
Karabakh (Artsakh) is a region populated with ethnic Armenians for centuries. Stalin gave away the region to Azerbaijan SSR in 1923 as part of the Soviet Union’s ‘divide and conquer’ strategy. In 1990 Artsakh voted in a referendum to join the newly independent Armenia, which Azerbaijan did not accept, resulting in the ongoing conflict that continues to this day.
There are really 3 options on the table — I will tell you now that one of them is right and two are very wrong:
1) Allow Artsakh the freedom to self-determination (RIGHT!).
Us Europeans pride ourselves with societies that exercise basic democratic principles. Ask yourself: are poorly-drawn borders more important than a people’s right to self-determination? Comparing apples to oranges I know, but when Scotland had their referendum England did not start shelling Edinburgh, we respected the rights of Scots. Reparations for the thousands displaced or having lost loved ones on both sides need to be considered as part of the difficult healing process.
2) Allow Azerbaijan to conquer Artsakh (WRONG!!)
What is being attempted right now! As argued this would be a catastrophe, Azerbaijan will not hesitate to cleanse the region of people and history, when Europe’s action could have stopped this
3) Do nothing and keep status quo (WRONG!!) — keep conflict frozen, keep stoking decades of resentment, keep shedding blood of two peoples.
What can you do?
You can help spread the news — use your voice to condemn these bellicose actions. Or better, write to your MP [10]. Or better better, donate to help Karabakh’s survival (if anyone does that please let me know!) [11].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaras_Monastery
[2] https://twitter.com/presidentaz/status/560718307515318272?s=20
[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/01/world/middleeast/turkey-azerbaijan-armenia-war.html
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlbjJqAliZE
[7] https://tass.com/world/1207675
