by AMALIA GOSHTIGIAN
As of Sept. 23, more than 100,000 Armenians have been forced to leave their ancestral lands of Artsakh as refugees.
Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh, is a small piece of land between Armenia and Azerbaijan that has been inhabited by ethnic Armenians for thousands of years, but recognized as part of Azerbaijan under the Soviet Union.
After Artsakh fought for its independence from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, a dispute began between Armenia and Azerbaijan over who the land belonged to.
Peace negotiations began to end the conflict, but Azerbaijan declared war. Azerbaijan slowly began claiming all of Artsakh, and the war culminated in Azerbaijan expelling Armenians from Artsakh.
Now, only a fraction of the original Armenian population remains. During the time of active war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, there was a nine-month-long starvation blockade that barred Armenian civilians from escaping the war or receiving any assistance from their homeland.
The blockade came to an end in a violent military assault on Sept. 19.
Now that Azerbaijan has claimed Artsakh and expelled the Armenians who once lived there, there is fear that the centuries-old cultural monuments of Armenia will be erased forever.
The erasure of Armenian artifacts has happened in the past, such as the destruction of 16th-Century Armenian tombstones from Julfa. Armenian monuments are also facing falsifications, being rebranded as “Caucasian Albanian,” to deny the ancestral roots of Armenians in Artsakh.
The war stretches deeper than being a power struggle over the
land–it is also cultural genocide. The Armenian people of Artsakh have been starved, denied humanitarian aid and now face the erasure of their culture.
This issue has faced stunning indifference from the rest of the world. Armenian activists reached out to heritage organizations such as the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to intervene, but nothing happened.
This issue is multifaceted and runs deeper than just a land dispute. Both cultures have historical claims over Artsakh, but because of the inability to find solutions, thousands are suffering.
During my five-week-long stay in Armenia, I had the chance to visit some of the border villages at risk of coming under attack due to the war with Azerbaijan. I witnessed the resilience and spirit of my community as they continued to persevere despite the looming threat of an all-out war that extends past Artsakh.
The greatest sight that put the loss of the conflict into perspective for me was witnessing the graveyard dedicated to those who lost their lives in the war. As I read the names on the headstones, I couldn’t help but think how each life lost was a brother or a son … lost just shy of their 20th birthdays.
Almost everybody I spoke to during my visit had lost–or knew somebody who had lost–a loved one to the war. Through the vibrancy of music festivals and parades, I heard wishes for peace and the protection of a culture that is being backed into a corner by powers larger than itself.
The silence from the rest of the world to this conflict is reflective of the response to the 1915 genocide of the Armenian people. As deep as this conflict runs, we cannot allow cultural genocide to prevail through our indifference.
Refugee relief funds such as the Artsakh Refugee Support Fund through the Paros Foundation are seeking help to support the civilians being harmed by the conflict. Showing support isn’t just about providing aid to another culture, it also shows that people across the world care about the suffering in Armenia.
Educate … donate … and speak out.
The Mainsheet 