It is a precarious time for Artsakh
and Armenia. The Azeris have blocked the Lachin Corridor cutting off
supplies of food, fuel and medical supplies. With winter setting in and
no other power stepping in to assist us, it appears the Azeris hold the
upper hand. To say it is disheartening for all Armenians to have to
watch this happening barely explains how horrible and helpless we are
feeling. It is difficult to read or write about it.
I am not an expert, nor am I
privy to any great insights, but there seems to be no military option
for us. The Azeris have superior weaponry and numbers as was shown in
the costly and devastating 2020 war. Unlike Ukraine, no one is coming to
our aid with training and weapons. There was news a few months ago of
an arms deal with India. I am guessing it is nowhere near the kind of
support the US is providing to Ukraine.
Nancy Pelosi did visit Armenia in
mid-September. She was the highest-ranking US official to visit the
Republic of Armenia. It came at a time when Azerbaijan was making
incursions into Armenia, and it looked like another war was about to
start. Her visit seemed to calm the tensions until just over a week ago
when Azerbaijan began this blockade. France’s Macron has recently spoken
on our behalf as well.
Azerbaijan does not seem fazed by
Pelosi’s visit or Macron’s words. Aliyev seems to believe that no one
will come to Armenia’s aid. I shudder that he may be correct. It seems
to be in no one’s interest to help us. We are small in numbers. We are
not laden with natural resources, and there is nothing strategic about
our location. Our immediate neighbors? Turkey and Azerbaijan are
enemies. Georgia is not Armenian friendly by any means. Iran has their
own issues internally and quite a large Azeri minority living there. We
are in Russia’s sphere of influence, but there seems to be little hope
of Russia stepping in. Putin has the war he started with Ukraine to deal
with anyways. I really am not sure we can stop them, and it looks like
no one is going to help us. What can we do? What can we really do? A
friend of mine in Chicago posted this:
Artsakh needs you. What you can do.
- Amplify voices from Artsakh and raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis.
- Contact your representatives and demand sanctions against Azerbaijan.
- Protest, in person and online, against Azerbaijan’s attempt to ethnically cleanse Armenians from Artsakh.
Church leaders, diasporan political parties and our lobbying groups have basically encouraged us
to do the same. Another friend just started a nonprofit to raise money
to purchase border monitoring equipment. Their fundraising effort is to
raise like $10,000. Of course, we need to do these things. Of course, I
will do these things. I just worry about how useful and effective they
are. It just doesn’t feel like enough. I was feeling quite grim. Then, I
read Simon Maghakyan’s article in Time, History Suggests This Winter Could Be Dangerous for Armenians.
His historical perspective helped turn my bleakness to a grim
resolution that we can never give up. Defending our lands and people
from these enemies has to be our sole focus.
Hopefully, in the short run, negotiations will work.
In the longer run, we need to focus on defensive military strength. We
don’t need any more congressional or parliamentary resolutions or
recognitions of what happened in 1915. We need them to treat us a lot
more like the West is currently treating Ukraine. We need money, modern
weaponry and training to be able to defend ourselves from enemies that
want to eliminate our presence in what remains of our ancestral
homeland. If no one helps us in this regard, we must figure out how to
do it ourselves. Our only salvation is in our collective strength… and
an iron ladle.
First Published in The Armenian Weekly
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