Armenian around the world have been worrying themselves sick since September 27 when Azerbaijan with the aid of Turkey and Turkey funded Syrian mercenaries started an all out war with the Armenians over the region known as Nogorno Kharabagh. We were collectively worried, and with good reason, at the disparity in population and more so on the level of military spending by Azerbaijan. Adding Turkey’s military might to the mix made things seem even more daunting.
Given the hatred the governments of Turkey and Azerbaijan have had and demonstrated, Turkey since the Ottoman days and Azerbaijan since the fall of the Soviet Union, we were all justifiably worried that the hatred would again turn genocidal resulting in the brutal slaughter of Armenians.
The Armenians in the diaspora rallied. We rallied and united like never before. Crisis, extreme life or death crisis, has a way of doing that. This was not the Armenian Highlands in 1915. The Armenians in the Diaspora are of means to lobby governments and raise millions of dollars in short order. We lobbied, via letter, phone calls, and petitions, government leaders at all levels in the countries where we live to create awareness of what was happening in Kharabagh. Beyond awareness we asked for, nay demanded, action to do what was right for the indigenous Armenian people of the region and right the wrong that Stalin did a century ago in giving this region and Nakhichevan to Azerbaijan. We asked for legislation. We protested to raise awareness. We hoped for military and humanitarian aid and better yet military intervention to stop what the sheer lopsided numbers portended might happen. We did not get legislation and certainly not the military aid.
Our efforts were valiant, steadfast, and united. I was never so proud of our people especially, those in my children’s generation. Their fundraising and presence on social media was impressive.
During all of this time, in Artsakh (yes, I know, I use the names Arsakh and Kharabagh interchangeably), our soldiers there fought valiantly. As my friend said, they were shooting down drones, sold to Azerbaijan by Israel and others, with pea shooters. Their drones were more plentiful than our pea shooters were accurate. The pounded our towns with artillery. We killed tens to hundreds of their soldiers for each of ours that were martyred. Yet, they kept coming. The numbers not in our favor as we were well aware. The Kharabaghtsis were awesome, brave, and valiant.
We were all expecting support from Armenia proper and Russia. Russia was lost Azerbaijan, from a sphere of influence standpoint, to Turkey. We all hoped to the point of assuming, they would support the Armenians and the independence of Artsakh. They did not. As per our history, the Armenians in Kharabagh were mostly on their own. They were superior in tactics and determination; they fell short in numbers and armaments.
On November 10, the war abruptly ended. Shushi was about to fall and the Presidents of Armenia and Artsakh agreed to terms that were not favorable to the salt of the earth, Mamig and Babig, people of Artsakh. It was a gut punch to all of us.
I have no inside information on what happened behind the scenes. My first reaction was that the big regional powers Turkey and Russia imposed terms on the Armenians. The fall or imminent fall of Shushi seemed to trigger a cease fire and terms so quickly that I assumed they were already pre-arranged.
The result, Armenians were again on the short end of things and we are all sick about it.
It took me almost a week before I could write about this. I will be writing about some more, I'm sure.
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