The Vatican’s quiet alignment with Azerbaijan

Every student of political science frequenting academic institutions in North America, from the early stages of his/her academic journey is exposed to key principles that shape and colour international relations;
a) Politics is an amoral endeavour where you have NO permanent enemies, NO permanent friends, ONLY permanent interests.
b) Moral principles are adopted, exploited, or casually discarded to protect interests, NOT to build utopian societies where justice and prosperity for all prevails.

Unfortunately, as a nation we failed to understand the valuable principles mentioned above, and often, throughout our well documented history of the last 17 centuries, we invested very high hopes in friendships and questionable alliances, all the while immersing ourselves in the delusion that “Friends”, “Allies”, “Western Democracies”, “Christian Co-religionists” will run to our rescue, especially when we are facing an existential challenge.

Our relationship with the Vatican has been always tumultuous and controversial, but NO different than the relations we forged with France, Britain, The US, and Russia. Like the Vatican they all betrayed us and decided to place a higher premium on their own vested interests, and to discern the tragic dimension of the painful backstabbing and desertion imposed on us by the “Civilized West” one has to review the events of 2022-23 that sealed the fate of Artsakh.

It started on December 12, 2022 when Azerbaijani intelligence agents masquerading as “Environmental Activists” blocked the Lachin corridor, thus cutting off vital supplies badly needed by the 130,000 indigenous Armenians living in that territory. Artsakh’s blockade was described by a group of prominent British religious and political figures as a

“…war of terror being waged by Azerbaijan, with a medieval style siege, inflicted in the 21st century and continuing into 2023, against the Armenian people in the historic Armenian land of Nagorno Karabakh [Artsakh]– relocated by Stalin in Azerbaijan. Perhaps stretched and preoccupied by the horrors in Ukraine the media’s virtual silence is tragically allowing terrible atrocities to occur under the shadow of darkness.” [David Alton.net]

The Vatican was well informed about the hardships imposed by Petro-Dictator Aliyev on the 130,000 Armenians exposed to the horrors of the Azeri blockade. The Pope paid “Lip Service” to the victims of the siege. “Western Democracies”, like The Vatican, offered an abundance of hollow moral support and crocodile tears. The Vatican embassy in Ottawa/Holy See Diplomatic Mission to Canada/Apostolic Nunciature to Canada, together with the embassies of 27 European countries were told that options do exist to lift the siege of Artsakh, if political decision makers can muster the courage to defy Petro-Dictator Aliyev. Each embassy received the following article that detailed the solution:
“The Airdrop That Can Lift The Artsakh Blockade”

https://artsakhtheinadequateresponse.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-airdrop-that-can-lift-artsakh.html

Not a single tangible measure was adopted by the “Civilized West” to alleviate the suffering of the 130,000 Armenians struggling with hunger and illness in Artskh. The Vatican was too worried about any interruption in the flow of Azeri donations badly needed to restore the treasures of the Holy See. European leaders were preoccupied with the uninterrupted supply of Azeri gas and oil to keep their populations warm during the harsh winters of the European continent. Azeri oil was and still is heavier than Armenian blood.

Who do we blame in the big picture depicted above? Those who peddled to the victims empty promises or those who bought the lies, despite knowing well that not a single country will sacrifice its own interests to save Artsakh’s population?

When the next existential challenge hovers over Armenia, should Armenians recollect the following words of Pope Francis:
“Courage contains a humble strength that is supported by faith and God’s closeness. This courage disorients the corrupt and puts them, as it were, in a corner with their closed and hardened hearts.”

“Those who are courageous do not aim for their own protagonist, but for solidarity with their brothers and sisters who bear the burden of their fears and weaknesses…In the face of injustice, the Spirit gives us the strength not to resign ourselves, arouses in us outrage and courage: outrage in the face of these unacceptable realities and the courage to try to change them.”

Or should the Armenian nation remember the words of Bagrat Serpazan currently languishing in a jail based on the whimsical decisions of Pashinyan, a Prime Minister who practices “Telephone Justice”:
“We will avoid political beggary from the rest of the world, and armed with our political agenda we will pursue our noble goals with dignity. We should resign not from seeking friendships, but from focusing our hopes on friends only…
We will fight fearlessly to shape our own destiny because in our lands blood has streamed more abundantly than the waters that charted the course of our rivers, and with blood we protected our ancestral homeland with total disregard for the intensity of our sacrifice, and with blood we will never allow Artsakh to be integrated into the territorial sovereignty of our enemy.” 
Չեմ ներելու հանուն քեզ, Արցա՛խ. Բագրատ Սրբազան
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxwKR7nSnAA