One night on Tumanyan Street in Stepanakert, as a long queue forms outside of a bakery, a man’s voice can be heard, announcing his position as the 445th in line to buy bread.
Such scenes have become common in blockaded Artsakh. During the day the situation is even worse, as people have to wait in extreme heat conditions. Cases of fainting, especially among children and the elderly, have become frequent. In the morning, without having eaten breakfast, people stand in line under the sun for hours to take home a piece of bread. In the last 10 days, lines for bread have dramatically increased. There is a shortage of bread not only in Stepanakert, but across the regions.
In an interview with Artsakh Public Television, Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan, while discussing the challenges arising from the inhuman blockade by Azerbaijan, said, “To put it simply, Artsakh is a large concentration camp where Azerbaijan is carrying out genocide.”
The blockade of Artsakh by Azerbaijan has been ongoing for nearly eight months. Starting on December 12, 2022, the Berdzor (Lachin) Corridor, the sole road connecting Artsakh to Armenia was closed by a group of Azerbaijanis under the guise of eco-activists. As a result, 120,000 citizens of Artsakh, including 30,000 children, have been left without essential goods and services, including food, medicine and fuel. The situation became more dire on June 15, when Azerbaijan closed the lifeline road to Red Cross and Russian peacekeeping vehicles delivering humanitarian aid.
For Armenians, bread is a basic staple, based on traditions going back centuries and a lack of other food options. It is no coincidence that in Armenian, like in the Lord’s Prayer, “to eat bread” means to have food or consume a meal. “Seated/stuck on bread” refers to food or income. A good person is often described as “a human with bread.”
The Armenian people even have a “national” Armenian bread, the flatbread called lavash, which is traditionally prepared according to a special protocol. The lavash kneader makes a cross on the dough, invoking Christianity, which Armenians were first to adopt as the national religion in the early fourth century. Per tradition, the dough is kneaded by the eldest woman of the house, the grandmother, who is assisted by the eldest daughter-in-law and neighboring women. Lavash is baked early in the morning, and the fire is lit at sunrise. The bakers praise the sun, a pre-Christian tradition, and offer good wishes. Negative and curse words are prohibited during lavash making. According to the ritual, no adult man should be near the clay oven, the tonir, otherwise the bread will fall apart. It’s the enduring ancient Armenian version of, “Men don’t belong in the kitchen.”
Lavash has another important use – it can be stored for a long time. Stockpiling lavash has been a way to fight hunger. The famous local food jingalov hats carries that meaning. When there was nothing to eat, people made this flatbread stuffed with local greens.
Yet the humanitarian disaster in Artsakh has challenged gender roles. As the traditional breadwinners living under blockade, men have little means of making money, let alone buying anything with it. All grocery stores are empty, and bakeries have become the hottest spots in town, generating hours of lines. Standing in line is a struggle, but also a luxury, that not everyone can afford. Single, elderly, the sick or people with small children cannot stand in line for hours.
According to official data, the volume of bread production will decrease for another two-three days. Flour mills are producing flour from the harvested wheat, yet due to the rainfall and high humidity levels, the flour production process has slowed down and additional drying is necessary.
The long queues for bread are also caused by the fuel shortage. Since July 25, due to the lack of fuel stemming from Azerbaijan’s tightened blockade, city and inter-community transport has stopped operating. Bakers cannot deliver the bread to the shops, and people stand in queues in certain limited locations.
The stress is not only on the buyers, but also the bakers and the resellers. 44-year-old Gayane Tadevosyan has her own shop. Since the beginning of the blockade, she has worked hard to ensure that there is no shortage of bread in the store. She is not giving up easily. Since there is no fuel, she has decided to deliver the bread from the bakery to the store with a makeshift cart standing in the yard.
Every night, Gayane stands in line for several hours in front of the bakery, so that when the neighbors come in the morning, there will be bread in the store. There used to be a note stuck on the wall of the shop, “There is always bread.” She has torn up that note. For three days now, Gayane has been going to the bakery on her own, standing in line and coming back empty-handed.
“I don’t get tired of working. I’m ready to stay up all night and bring bread, so that I can provide bread even to sick people and families with children,” says Gayane. She knows the residents of the neighborhood well and takes it seriously when those living in the neighborhood come and see the store empty.
Like all Armenian women, Gayane used to have sweets for the guests, which she gave only to the children who entered the store. Today, its supply has also been exhausted. There are leftovers of non-essential economic goods on candy shelves. “The most difficult thing is rejecting children. I cry several times a day when a parent enters the store holding a child, and I can’t offer at least a piece of candy,” she says. Gayane says empty adult stomachs are not as bad as unfulfilled wishes of children. “You are powerless when you cannot fulfill even their smallest wishes,” she said.
Samvel Tadevosyan, Gayane’s husband, was wounded during the first Artsakh war, and their daughter’s husband was killed in the 2020 war. Her three-year-old granddaughter does not have a father. Now Gayane has not seen her granddaughter for eight months. She is in Vanadzor, Armenia, unable to return home. Although she misses her a lot, Gayane says she is happy that her granddaughter is at least in a safe place and doesn’t feel a craving for candy, let alone actual food.
Together with her husband, sister-in-law and son, Gayane and her family cultivate a vegetable garden and engage in rabbit breeding. Gayane also does cleaning. Her only son, Tatul, is now preparing to marry. They will not have a wedding, only a church ceremony and a small table offering what they have at home in their yard. Gayane considers marriage an important mission. “We don’t know how long we will live like this. The war is not over. The blockade is the continuation of the war. But life goes on, and that’s how we have to face this disaster,” says Gayane.
During the Weekly’s conversation with Gayane, people constantly entered the store hoping to find bread. One of them was seven-year-old Tatevik. She already entered three grocery stores but did not find bread. When asked, “What is the blockade,” she answered directly: “The blockade is when there is no bread in the shops.” Tatevik did not say what she especially missed that her parents cannot find in stores. She only said that she wants bread to take home, so that her little brother does not go hungry. That’s her only dream these days.
“Youth Club Alliance” and “Artsakh Security and Development Front” implemented a volunteer initiative to deliver bread to the most needy. They recruited a group of volunteers, and with 10-15 volunteers a day, ages 14-20, they deliver black bread (specifically for diabetic patients) from bakeries on foot to stores where diabetic patients living in the neighborhood can have their daily bread, both in Stepanakert and on the outskirts of the city.
“In the last few days, when there was a shortage of bread, even this initiative stopped, but I hope that as soon as the shortage ends, we will continue to take bread to stores and to the needy, while the fuel problem is not solved and bread is not delivered to stores as it was before,” Gayane Sargsyan, one of the organizers of this initiative, told the Weekly.
Recently the Artsakh leadership declared a state of emergency, hoping that the international community would provide humanitarian assistance, as is done in the case of a natural disaster.
Armenia was the first to respond to this declaration, sending a convoy of vehicles carrying humanitarian aid. The trucks were stopped at the Hakari bridge, as Azerbaijan prohibits the import of essential goods into Artsakh. Trucks loaded with 400 tons of long-awaited flour, vital medicines, baby food and other essentials have been stuck for two weeks in Kornidzor, the last town in Armenia at the entrance to the Berdzor Corridor.
While Russian peacekeepers are unable to lift the blockade, observers from Western countries and international organizations simply record this fact through statements. Meanwhile the queues in Stepanakert and the regions in front of bakeries stretch endlessly. As the blockade persists, the Armenians of Artsakh are left to fend for themselves, struggling to access basic necessities. Even the daily bread is becoming a wish that one can only pray for in Artsakh.
Siranush Sargsyan
Latest posts by Siranush Sargsyan (see all)
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The genocidal Azerbaijan is turning Artsakh into a Warsaw Ghetto 2.0. They have penned up the Armenians in what is left of Artsakh, and are slowly starving and depriving Armenians of medicine and medical care, until they completely liquidate their presence, just like the Nazis did in Poland to the Jews. It’s horrific and revolting, and the utter silence and complicity of the “International Community” is equally horrific and revolting.
The former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has just published a report on the “Genocide by starvation” committed against Artsakh.
https://luismorenoocampo.com/lmo_en/report-armenia/?fbclid=IwAR2cOjlLkG_beru26dRT3wv9sRRfvc2Ov_y5XMcCh0nmrHBgO5misnqn-ac
Hi, I am suffering for you because what you have written is the truth. Where is the International Community gone?
I am supporting you and making people know what is happening in Artsakh.
Genicid by starvation and nobody is moving
Long live the color revolution of 2018, paid for by Western and Turkish interests, supported by the diaspora. Thank goodness that those corrupt puppets of Moscow were chasced out of power just in time. Well done Armenian world!!!
No difference between him and Zelinski. Same source.
Why is this even important?
Noble Pashinyan said he would get rid of Artsakh, and by golly, he did!! With US and French help!!!
Armenians have more important things to worry about, like Pashinyan spending $23 million on Snoop Dogg’s concert!
So, “muh democracy” meant no Artsakh. Armenians chose an Anna Hakobyan, Snoop Dogg, Nikol Pashinyan three way instead!!!
How is pashinyan still in charge in beyond mt imagination
Ever notice how quite this so-called Armenian Ambassador to the US, LILI MAZUN. is? You never hear from her making comments about the situation in Armwnia or Artsakh. She’s like , Walking Dead, roaming around having lunch, taking selfies withs US congressmen, and Senators. In case you folks wondering, she got the job because she used to be English teacher back in Armenia. Yes siree, ZERO KNOWLEDGE in politics, but speaka English.
Ok,Gurgen,
I’m assuming you maybe Armenian, then again maybe not. When you accuse Diasporan Armenians being part of the mess, tuxov tetoum keloukov rowdies created, I suggest you provide the readers with reliable source and evidence. For all I know is, there’s this shrimp that goes by the name of , Zareh Sinanian, who was former mayor of Glendale, California, and was hand-picked by the clowns in Armenua to rile up support amongst the Diasporans to repatriate to Armenia. Surrrrrrre. So, far he has been kicked out of all town hall meetings, with no prospect in getting the diasporans to go along with his baseless agenda. Another INSIGNIFICANT, politically Illiterate with ZERO knowledge in politics. Anywho,
I say this once again, when posting comments, you might as well provide source and evidence or stop being nuisance.
Gurgen,” Thank goodness Moscow puppets were chased out….”. Are you implying that,you’d rather see Armenia and Artsakh disappear off the map, than dealingg with
Kocharyam, and Sargsyan?
He was being sarcastic. Gurgen and Concerned are pro Russian
It’s too late to do anything now. Geopolitical shifts have begun and we Armenians effectively maneuvered Armenia right out of contention and straight into a dead end.
Armenians squandered the opportunity to settle the dispute over Artsakh in the 1990s. Yerevan at the time needed to compromise from a position of strength. Armenians should have pulled back from at least 5 of the 7 territories outside of the internationally recognized borders of Artsakh. We should have invited a Russian military presence inside Artsakh, making the territory strategically valuable for the Kremlin. We needed to forge closer ties with both Russia and Iran. We needed to turn Armenia into an indispensable nation for both Moscow and Tehran. It was not to be. Our arrogance, pride, materialism, tribalism, shortsightedness, cognitive dissonance, political illiteracy and our love of all things Western came into play. We thought we were invincible. We thought we could be maximalistic. We thought we could sit on two chairs. Armenians wasted 30 years on importing Western pop culture and NGOs, calling for revolutions and playing games with our closest and only ally, Russia. All the while, the Diaspora acted like a pack animal for all kinds of Western and Tukish agendas in Armenia. The accumulated toxicity then burst in 2018.
We got what we wished in 2018. We then got what we deserved in 2020.
The tragedy of the last 5 years is our collective fault. Ultimately, Nikol’s toxic regime is a by-product of the materialism, tribalism, shortsightedness, egotism, political illiteracy and cognitive dissonance that is so prevalent in modern Armenian society. The only thing left to look forward to at this point in time is to see Armenia entering the Russian Federation in some form. That’s the ONLY hope. Everything else is a pipe dream that will not only prolong the misery, but also threaten what little we have left of Armenia.
Anderson,” Pashi_yan said he would get rid of Artsakh”. Of course, he would say that, he’s surrounded by ,30,000 convicts wearing police uniform, otherwise he would not have the MANHOOD to say it outside the circle of protection in public.
The Gonocide is not perpetrated by only Azerbaijan, it is with the colaboration of EU, US, Russia, NATO, CSTO, and all institucions that defend the rights of human species.
Correct, and it’s because Armenians thought they could sit in two chairs at the same time. When you try to appease both sides of a geopolitical conflict, neither side is pleased with you. With our “complomentary politics” and love of all things Western, we collectively manoeuvred Armenia out of contention and into a dead end.
Armenia’s natural place in the world today is in a close union with the Russian Federation, similar to the status enjoyed by Belarus or Crimea.
Armenia was resurrected in the early 19th century by the Russian Bear. For the past two hundred years an Armenia has been able to exist in a dangerous neighborhood like the south Caucasus only because of the Russian factor in the region. The post-Soviet years have shown beyond any doubt that Armenians are not ready for independence and may not be ready for well into the foreseeable future. Besides, any form of independence from Russia will only result in Armenia’s dependence on Turkey. Those who badmouth Russia or Russians better first understand that if Russia ever decided to fully pull out of Armenia, and give Armenians their full “independence”, Armenia will disappear from the world map practically overnight.
One more time: the existence of an Armenia only serves Russia’s and Iran’s interests; and no one else. The fall of Armenia will only hurt Russia and Iran as it will significantly elevate the influence of Turks and Sunni Islamists in the region. The fall of Armenia will therefore be relished by Western powers. In the big picture, Western powers, including and especially the US, have been very detrimental to Armenia’s health and wellbeing. Armenia must limit its exposure to the toxic West. For better or for worst, Armenia is wed to Russia. For better or for worst, Armenia must maintain good relations with Iran. This is the ONLY path forward if we don’t want to Armenia become a Vilayet again.
This situation is unacceptable from a humanitarian standpoint. No one should be blockading life threatening medical supplies and food. It’s a modern day genocide.
RD
Illegitimate Nicole is a criminal that should have been kicked out of power long time ago he has made so many terrible decisions and humiliate Armenians all over the world. He is disingenuous, deceitful and toxic.
is it not possible to still deliver humantarian aid and needed supplies to the suffering in artsakh by air lift? response by wstern powers and the international court to emd the blockade which is entering its eight month have been unsuccessful. the apparent choke hold and deliberate efforts to drive the armenians out of the region will continue unless collectively the world responds. the will of the armenian people to survive is well known but may not be enough if the current situation does not end. i am sure that neither country wishes to prolong the war as that which occured in afganistan.
It is time to shelve the geopolitical pontificating and scream to everyone and anyone you know one simple fact. The people in Artsakh are starving and in the midst of a Genocide. Call your elected officials. Write an op ed. Demand that our US government organize a humanitarian airlift directly into Artsakh. Then question why no Magnitsky sanctions on Azeri officials and why is Azerbaijan getting US aid while they are carrying out a Genocide. Please just do it!
Yes, create a mess then run crying. Classic Armenian MOP.
Breaking news for you Gary: none of what you said is realistic. People who think like you live in parallel universe. No one will lift a finger even if it is not in their geopolitical interests. It’s amazing that after being on the short end of the stick for 100 plus years Armenians are still talking about justice, humanitarianism, and putting hope in criminal Westerners.
Gurgen’s response was spot-on. I am not Armenian, nor Turkish, nor do I have any connection to the Caucasus region at all. Thus, I can agree that non-Armenian Americans won’t care about this heart-breaking situation. I’m not saying it’s right or okay or remotely fair; it’s just the way it is.
We are *inundated* with massive injustices around the world. How many are starving in North Korea or the horn of Africa right now? What about Ukraine? What about Uyghurs, Yemen, Lebanon, Myanmar, Syria, Venezuela, Haiti, Tajikistan, etc etc etc? What about our own domestic issues, including homelessness, crime, drug addiction, etc? What about reparations and American Indian Natives and their land claims? Very quickly, it’s beyond overwhelming. Of course, your cause is extremely important to you, but I don’t see how you’ll get non-Armenian Americans to care about this. It’s a tiny, unimportant country (to the US) in Russia’s backyard, who most people only a bit about due to the Kardashians. Events that happened before any of us were born? On the other side of the world? Not going to generate interest, much less action.
I’ve been following Armenian developments since the skirmishes in 2016. I do NOT claim to be an expert in any way, just trying to illustrate that I’ve spent far more time than the Average American on world events. Even then, from my relatively impartial and very non-expert research, it seemed Armenia’s military was dangerously antiquated and brittle, and no one seemed to be taking the growing Azeri threat seriously. The scoffs of “Ha, let them try it. We’ll be drinking tea in Baku!” and “Turk-lover”, “stop reading propaganda”, and/or “educate yourself” were constantly thrown at me (among other fun insults).
Guess what? Being insulted and ridiculed again and again didn’t exactly warm me to up to the Armenian side. But I found following this conflict fascinating, so I didn’t allow myself to be driven off by rude jerks. I’d wager it’s NOT the same for other curious Americans who ask well-intended questions. I say this because many Armenians seem to snap straight to contempt, insults and/or dismissals if someone isn’t instantly on the Armenian side, no questions asked. If the goal is to generate support, I strongly urge you be more patient with “newbies”. Aka, don’t “scream”. It comes across as aggressive and massively off-putting, not passionate.
That all being said, it’s basic fact at this point that Artsakh is internationally recognized as Azeri territory, and Azerbaijan is recognized as a sovereign nation. “Artificial Azerbaijan” comes across as distracting sour grapes and detracts from the argument(s) Armenians are trying to make. Doing any further digging shows the area has an incredibly complex past and is currently tied to Russia in the forms of military bases, the “peacekeeper” force, CSTO, and E(A)EU. Trying to figure out who the land “belongs to” seems to entirely depend on the year in history. I often see “the first Christian nation” thrown around; this is a mildly interesting trivia fact, not something that would remotely inspire Christian Americans to action on behalf of Armenia/Artsakh.
The truth is, Armenia and Artsakh chose to gamble, and lost. They had 30-ish years to actually negotiate and finalize their 90’s win, but instead chose to try the “freeze” approach, hoping their “Big Brother(s)” and genocide recognition efforts would come to their rescue / support. Armenia miscalculated on multiple levels, unfortunately, and now is feeling the consequences of those decisions.
The one point you made that I believe Armenians could have success with is stopping military aid to Azerbaijan. I doubt even sanctions would be applied, given that Azerbaijan has done a pretty decent job of positioning itself as helpful to Europe and Israel, who of course are strong allies of the US.
To be clear, I’m horrified by all of the atrocities happening everywhere, and Armenians have certainly had more than their share of persecutions and tragedies. I suppose my overall point is that I want Armenian-Americans to realize they need to recalibrate their goals, strategies, and tactics to the current geopolitical reality if they want more tangible successes. Which I hope Armenia starts seeing soon, but hope is not a strategy.
It’s too late to do anything now. Geopolitical shifts have begun, and we Armenians effectively maneuvered Armenia right out of contention and straight into a dead end. We are not in a position to control or even influence events. Therefore, what will happen, will happen.
PS: if you have at at time spoken against Serj Sargsyan, Robert Kocharyan or Russia, you have contributed to what Armenia and Artsakh are going through today.
@Not Armenian
Your article is brilliant, someone after my own heart.
I understand all the different viewpoints here. The simple fact is that only psychopaths would sit back and watch a totally preventable genocide due to mass starvation take place. And if that is what the United Nations Security Council opts to do tomorrow, then humanity is in a very sorry state indeed. And TRYING to bring visibility to the issue is not a waste of time, because evil works best in the dark.
The United States travels around the world ( Army, Navy, Air Force,and the Marines), pretending to be the guardian of democracy, and the defender of the rights of the people.Then, they invade peaceful Iraq in 2003 under the pretext of searching for WMD, killing over one million civilians,and displacing over 5 million. For twenty years, NATO/US bombs Aghhanistan, killing several thousand civilians, of that 45% are CHILDREN.In 2015, the U.S., NATO, France, and other EU countries, arm the Saudis/ UAE, killing over 400,000 Yemeni civilians and starving 16 million, and the world remains silent. To this date, NONE of the abovementioned countries have faced justice. Yet, our NAIVE Armenians are hoping and expecting that the criminal WEST would come to the rescue of Artsakh. Hah,… GOOD LUCK. Time to get rid of, Tuxov Tetum Keloukov CLAN, afterwards, we’ll take care of Azeris/Turks.
@Charles – thank you so much. Truly appreciated!
I always get this vibe of someone is coming to save us surely! from Armenians online or the world sure owes us something and damn them for not supporting us. as an African whose people have suffered Greatly at the hands of Europeans I just laugh each time. some things I read from Armenians online tells me many talk from their emotions and not critical thinking.
Austin onah,
You’ve been getting the wrong vibe I must say because it seems to me you are misinterpreting what some Armenians may say. To understand what they actually mean by what they say you really have to have a much better understanding of Armenian history, both contemporary and past, and you have to put things in context. Throughout centuries, Armenians always had to fight against forces much bigger than theirs and with no or very little international support and that because the interests of international communities always overlapped with those of our enemies, i.e. terrorist Turkey is a NATO ally in the region in the most volatile part of the world and artificial criminal Azerbaijan is a Turkish ally and has oil & gas reserves in the Caspian the West badly needs and is heavily invested in. That is why you never hear a direct and targeted condemnation of the actions of our enemies by international communities because by doing so they will always have something to lose and by siding with the Armenians they will have nothing to gain. So they choose a stand that is self-serving and use vague language in the statements they make so as not to upset the offending side and end up putting their own interests in jeopardy on behalf of another no matter how justified they may be in their stand.
We don’t need “saviors” to save us by fighting for us and we are more than capable of doing that on our own. We just need the weapons necessary to do that. Things get even more complicated when foreign powers get involved in conflicts, on behalf of one side or another, because once they do there has to be something in it for them. No one is going to fight your fight unless there is something in it for them. As a result, smaller and weaker nations end up being manipulated and used as pawns in the hands of much bigger powers in the region. For example, when Armenians fought against artificial Azerbaijan to liberate occupied Armenian territories in the 1990s, despite their disproportionate wealth and manpower, they ended up winning the fight because the sides fought their own fights more or less. But when the geopolitics of the region changed which drew other foreign powers into the region, and Armenians failed to adapt to those new changes, things took a turn for the worst for the Armenians because by then they not only had to fight the enemy they knew very well and had defeated in a devastating and humiliating fashion three decades prior, and once more in 2016, but that they now had new challenges they had to face, such as NATO member terrorist Turkey’s direct military involvement on our enemy’s behalf, thousands of foreign mercenaries they brought with them, Israeli exploitation and support for the enemy in return for establishing military bases right next door to their arch-enemy Iran, and many more, and all of that without any military support from their Russian military ally. Why the Russians chose not to get involved and support their Armenian ally is a whole different story. There are different theories on that such as the Russian-Ukrainian war on the horizon and Russia needing Turkish and Azerbaijani support in that, hence sacrificing Armenia for Russia, or Russia not having the obligation to defend the Armenians in the conflict zone because that region officially stood outside of Armenia but then we realize Russia wants this territory back where it falsely and illegally “belonged” during now-defunct USSR as part of a much bigger plan to attempt to bring back into Russian sphere of influence all those who had “ran away” from them as a result of the Soviet collapse. I partially blame this miscalculation on the Armenian side because if they had declared this liberated Armenian territory as part of Armenia and had started the unification process they would have discovered exactly where Russia stood on that. Meaning the Russians either had to show their true faces in this regard like they did in 2020 or accept Armenian claims and therefore had to defend that territory as well and as part of their defense treaty with Armenia. P.S. Azerbaijan was an artificial creation of the Soviets and the Russians would never want to lose their own creation.
As you may see things are much more complicated than what you may hear some Armenians say without truly understanding what they really mean and without much deeper analysis and look into our history and challenges we have faced throughout centuries and continue to face today!
For once a lot of what you wrote makes some sense. Clarification: between 1994 and 2020, Moscow did not miss any opportunity to tell Yerevan – if you want to settle the dispute over NKR, get out of the 7 territories captured outside of NKR’s internationally recognized borders and allow Russian troops inside. Official Yerevan showed them the middle finger the entire time. By 2020, when the Armenian world had enthisitastically put into power professional Russophobes financed by Western interests and thereafter Azeris attacked – Russia showed us the middle finger. We lost the war because we had lost Moscow’s support. NKR remained Armenian previously not because we were good warrior (Armenians are far from being good soldiers or warriors) but because Moscow was not interested in seeing a change in the status quo. All that began to change after 2014, when Western financed activists began making headway in Kiev and Yerevan.
With the war against NATO approaching, Russians used our Armenian-style political incompetence to strike a deal with Baku and Ankara. That was why Moscow pulled its protective hand away slight, just enough to punish Armenians and pacify Turks until it took care of business in Ukraine. Had we not been a totally incompetant people, we would have done everything possible to turn Armenia into a Belarus or a Chechnya. We chose to turn Armenia into a Kurdistan.
PS: Moscow was also never under any obligation extent any form of military protection to Artsakh. Moscow allowed Yerevan to hold on to the territory because it had no reason to change the status quo. 2014 and 2018 changed the status quo. Unbeknownst to Armenians, Artsakh was living on borrowed time. Had we understood that the keys to a acceptable settlement was found in Moscow and not in Brussels, London or Washington, we would not be where we are today.
funny you keep on using words like terrorist turkey, artificial AZERBAIJAN etc while expecting genocidal countries like France, Germany, Britain, Russia, USA etc to come to your aid and give you weapons. one would think Armenians would disabuse itself of the idea that an “international community” dominated by colonizers and killers of native Americans, Australians, Africans etc would not readily come to your aid. Europeans have committed countless genocide’s in Africa and around the world yet you expect them to come to aid you!? is that not ironic. how many Armenians are living in artificial Countries like Canada and USA today? so calling turkey terrorist or Azerbaijan artificial just rings odd in my ears when there are bigger terrorist and artificial Countries in Europe and North America that you expect aid from to fight your battle’s, if that is not the biggest irony I don’t know what is.
Austin onah,
There is nothing funny here. It sounds like you have a whole different agenda here. What those countries you mentioned did in their past history does not make Turkey any less terrorist and Azerbaijan any less artificial. Turkey committed genocide in 1915 against the indigenous Armenians, murdered hundreds of thousands of Greeks and Assyrians, killed tens of thousands of Alevis in 1938 as part of a staged coup, invaded the Greek island of Cyprus in 1974, makes military incursions into sovereign territories of Syria and Iraq without any permission from these governments to chase the Kurdish militia on regular basis, has invaded the South Caucasus and much more AND Azerbaijan showed up as a country on the map for the first time in history in 1918 and began ethnic-cleansing of the natives and the expropriation of their lands and rewriting of their histories. How does that not make Turkey terrorist and Azerbaijan artificial?
Did you even read what I said? You keep mentioning those countries you have issues with and interjecting what they did in other parts of the world into this discussion to try to kill the message by killing the messenger so to speak. That’s what terrorist Turkey does too. Every time France brought up the Armenian Genocide issue in the past, Turkish leaders started attacking France’s past to take attention away from the issue at hand never addressing their past criminal acts. You call those countries terrorists and colonizers and you keep saying you can’t expect them to fight our fights. Like I said, we don’t need anyone to fight our fights, that’s what our enemies do, and we are more than capable of doing that ourselves and have proven it time and again and that we need weapons to fight our fights. What difference does it make where the weapons are coming from? These same countries you mentioned at one time or another and as part of the NATO alliance have given terrorist Turkey all the weapons it has and artificial Azerbaijan has indirectly benefitted from them. Where is your complaint and condemnation about that? No one is giving a pass to any country that committed inhumane acts against another in the past and in any part of the world. It is just that you can’t ignore, even deny, the criminal acts of one terrorist state such as Turkey by condemning the criminal acts of another. Two wrongs don’t make a right!
To Ararat “Two wrongs dont make a right” Is this the principle you are using to advise how geopolitics are run??? If so, are you serious??? Based on whose geopolitics has this principle ever worked?
That was not a statement on how geopolitics are run. That was to say you can’t excuse and absolve yourself of your crimes by pointing out someone else’s. You are responsible for your actions regardless of who did what to whom. Like I said, you can’t kill the message by killing the messenger!