Author: Garnik Tadevosian

U.S. continues to be greatly concerned about the humanitarian situation in Nagorno- Karabakh – State Department spox

Garnik Tadevosian

 11:21,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 29, ARMENPRESS. The United States is greatly concerned about the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and is calling for unimpeded humanitarian access to the region, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing.

“I will say that we continue to be greatly concerned about the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. We think it’s important that residents of Nagorno-Karabakh be able to make the decision to leave if they want to leave and to be able to return if they want to return. It’s a decision that they all have to make as individuals, but we think it’s important that they be able to make that decision for themselves. And we think there ought to be unhindered humanitarian access to the region to make sure that populations in need can get the support that they require,” Miller said.

The State Department spokesperson also commented on the USAID deployment of a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) in the South Caucasus region to coordinate the U.S. humanitarian response.

“That team will assess the situation and identify priority needs to scale up assistance and work with partners to provide urgently needed aid,” Miller said.

He repeated the need for maintaining the ceasefire and ensuring humanitarian needs.

“I think what I would reiterate with respect to Nagorno-Karabakh is that overall, we think it’s important that the ceasefire be maintained, that the humanitarian needs be addressed, and that an independent international mission to provide transparency, reassurance, and confidence to the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh be established as soon as possible. That is our priority for dealing with the immediate situation and one that we are working to get off the ground.”

Watertown police investigate ‘hate’ note left on Armenian church’s bulletin board

Garnik Tadevosian
Sept 26 2023

By Susannah Sudborough

Watertown police said Monday they are investigating a note left on an Armenian church’s bulletin board that the church characterized as hateful. 

Police were called to St. Stephen’s Armenian Apostolic Church on Elton Avenue Monday morning to investigate a “suspicious note,” the department wrote on Facebook. The note, which was taped to the church’s message board, reads “Artsakh is dead, Karabakh is Azerbaijan.” 

“Hate towards Armenians is everywhere. Stay vigilant. We cannot let this deter our fight for survival and justice,” the church wrote on Facebook. 

The note’s message is a reference to disputed territory in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the South Caucasus, the Armenian name for which is Artsakh. The territory, which is largely populated with ethnic Armenians and has made efforts to split from Azerbaijan several times in the last century, is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. 

Conflict began again in the region on Sept. 19 when Azerbaijan used military force against an Armenian separatist enclave to reassert control, killing over 200 people, according to the Armenian government. Within days, Azerbaijan regained control, but on Sunday, over 1,000 ethnic Armenians fled the region as Armenia’s president warned of ethnic cleansing. 

St. Stephen’s pastor of nearly 30 years, Antranig Baljian, said the note was discovered by parents dropping off their children at the church’s elementary school. 

“There can be no other reason for something like this other than somehow trying to scare us,” he said.

Baljian said police responded right away and are checking the church’s security camera footage to try to find out who left the note. He said nothing like this has ever happened before at the church. 

“Why did this person have to do this?” he said. “We understand [the current geopolitical situation]. What happened is reality. There’s nothing that we can do here that will change that.”

St. Stephen’s congregation prayed for Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh Friday night, Baljian said. Now, he said, church members’ children are their foremost concern.

“What are they going to do next? We have to protect ourselves,” the pastor said. “All of our parents are in turmoil. They are afraid for their children.” 

Police said they are increasing patrols around the church in response to the note. 

“Please know that your police department will go to great lengths to ensure all community members feel welcome and safe in the City of Watertown,” the department wrote on Facebook. 

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Watertown Det. Ken Swift at 617-972-6538 or [email protected]. 

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2023/09/25/hate-note-watertown-armenian-church-bulletin-board-st-stephens-apostolic-police-azerbaijan/

“Artsakh is not dead, and we will not allow it to die”

Garnik Tadevosian
 Matthew Girardi Youth Opinion, Opinion, Diaspora 0

Washington, D.C. AYF “Ani” chapter member Matt Girardi delivers powerful remarks to the crowd

Remarks delivered at the AYF Washington, D.C. protest at the White House on September 20, 2023. 

Yesterday, September 19, 2023, the government of Azerbaijan ruthlessly and shamelessly escalated its attack on the people of Artsakh and struck at the soul of an ancient nation.

Women, children and young men alike lay dead, and many more wounded. Civilians have been relocated. The Artsakh Defense Forces have agreed to set down their arms. Today is a sad day, but it did not start nor does it end here. Nine months ago, the Aliyev regime, aided and abetted by enablers across the globe, set up an illegal checkpoint on the Lachin [Berdzor] Corridor—the only road connecting the indigenous people of Artsakh to the outside world. In defiance of the ceasefire agreement of 2020, in a mockery of international law, and devoid of basic human decency, the government of Azerbaijan weaponized food, medicine and energy for months on end, waging a slow campaign of extermination.

Time and time again, the people of Artsakh, the Armenian community around the world, and people of conscience both near and far implored the international community to act. We implored our government—our president—to use the awesome power entrusted to him to put an end to the suffering. We watched in horror as sham environmental protestors, waving dead

pigeons painted white as doves for peace and dressed in fur coats, were allowed to stop tens of thousands of tons of supplies from reaching the coldest of villages in the depths of winter. Our stomachs turned as Azeri soldiers openly erected a barricade across that same road, and we saw images of women and children—sentenced to starve for the crime of being Armenian—faint in breadlines. And yesterday, our hearts broke as Azerbaijan’s slow campaign of starvation became a wanton and unequivocal strike of barbarity. Let us be clear: this is genocide. It has been, and it continues to be. It is the echo of 1915 that should haunt the world. Moreover, it is a tragedy.

Let us be clear: this is genocide. It has been, and it continues to be. It is the echo of 1915 that should haunt the world.

You see, tragedy, my friends, is not simply heartbreak. It is a catastrophe that could have been prevented. It is a willing and eager hubris, unmoored from the responsibilities of one’s time. It is, and it has been, the story of America’s Artsakh policy. When this administration treats Azerbaijan and its chief enabler, Turkey, as if they can be reliable partners, it either deludes itself or sacrifices the moral foundation upon which America has built its global leadership. When Erdogan and Aliyev deny the occurrence of the Armenian Genocide while proudly exalting its architects, we know that these are men of neither dignity nor morality. After all, we have seen the fate of Armenian lands being placed under domination of tyrants and of genocidal mad men. Nakhichevan—with its storied and ancient Armenian roots—has been emptied of 99-percent of its Armenian heritage, according to Cornell University.

Moreover, we have seen escalations of violence that are sickening to the core: torture of POWs, mutilation and sexual assault of women, mass murders and beheadings all unrepentantly filmed by Azerbaijan’s armed forces and allowed to circulate as a campaign of psychological terrorism on the Armenian people.

When all these went without recourse, when Azerbaijan’s invasion of sovereign Armenian territory last year went without consequence, when each stage of this blockade was met with silence by the international community, that silence broadcast a point deafeningly: that

Azerbaijan would not act in good faith if the United States sat on its hands and continued to treat a campaign of annihilation as a simple quarrel between two misunderstanding parties. Statements of both-sideisms, rushed and coerced peace talks, and toothless diplomacy have failed America, and they have failed the people of Artsakh. They have allowed genocide. 

Going forward, we need our government to act. We need it to protect the people of Artsakh’s sacred right to self-determination. We need a U.N. mandate for international administration to immediately protect the population of Artsakh. We need this administration to finally hold Aliyev and all his goons accountable for the war crimes and genocide they have promulgated. We need immediate deliverance of humanitarian, development and reconstruction assistance and to secure the safe return of all those indigenous Armenians displaced by Azerbaijan’s campaign of aggression. We need the Biden administration to act tomorrow, at the United Nations, like justice, freedom and human rights are on the line—because they are. 

Today, however, we gather neither to mourn Artsakh nor to understate the danger of the moment. For Artsakh is not dead and we will not allow it to die, because above all, Artsakh is not just Armenia. Armenia is Artsakh. How we respond to the call of our brothers and sisters in Artsakh is indicative of who we truly are and who we will be. Will we devolve into factionalism, division and cowardice, or will we choose action? Will we choose to blacklist fellow Armenians from their own homeland, or will we write, do we lobby, do we protest, do we come together to call the eyes of the world to injustice and not let it look away for even a moment? 

My friends, we have been handed a legacy that has been passed down from generation to generation that is hardy, proud and unyielding. It is a beautiful dance set to the heartbeat of lions and that follows the steps of heroes. It is a sacred hymn that has echoed through mountains, which defeated countless armies but bound a people through millennia. For we are survivors. We are our mountains. We are immovable. We are Armenians. And like our ancestors before us, we stand upon the shoulders of giants below us and now hold the weight of destiny above. Now is not the time for half-measures, half-truths, and half-heartedness in the face of calamity. It is a time for a solidarity that will ring across oceans and continents that says we will never leave our brethren behind, for ours is a singular struggle for a common good and a shared destiny. It is a time for determination to stand in proud defiance of a world that believes we are a people whose battles have all been fought and lost, whose history is over, and whose time is past to rise and laugh and love once more.

But most of all, it is a time for that strangest of all manners: courage. You see, courage is not a reckless charge headlong. It is not fearlessness, especially when there is much to be feared. But it is pushing forward in the face of fear. It is putting one foot in front of the other, knowing that there is danger around the corner and with ice running through our veins, because it is the right thing to do. It is Armen Garo and Vahan Cardashian. It is Zabel. It is Andranik. It is Tatoul. It is Monte. It is the mother in Stepanakert holding her child as the air raids sound above, and it is the serviceman defending his homeland, and it must be us. Let us remember how futures are built. Let us remember who we are. And let us never stop fighting for a truly free, independent and united Armenia.

  •  Bio
  •  Latest Posts
Matthew Girardi is a resident of Washington, DC and a proud member of the AYF DC "Ani" Chapter. He serves as a political and communications organizer for the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689. He graduated from the George Washington University Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science and International Relations and a Masters of Professional Studies in Legislative Affairs.


"Evacuate all NK residents to Armenia. There is no other way." Opinion

Garnik Tadevosian
Sept 23 2023
  • JAMnews
  • Yerevan

Evacuation of NK Armenians by international structures

Gegham Baghdasaryan, a Karabakh journalist and head of Stepanakert Press Club, appealed to the authorities of the unrecognized NKR to organize the evacuation of all residents to Armenia. He believes that it should be urgently carried out with the assistance of international structures.

Here is his entry on Facebook, in which he explains why the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh cannot stay and integrate into the Azerbaijani state.

  • “Passivity equals complicity”. Discussion of the war in Karabakh in the UN Security Council
  • Arrests of “anti-war” activists in Azerbaijan
  • The Kremlin’s method of covering events in NK and Armenia: “The West is to blame, Russia saves”

“There is no other way: the Artsakh authorities must appeal to the international community, the UN and the European Union, proposing, demanding the evacuation of people under their auspices. Armenia will not go for that. In any case, it would be more correct for the Artsakh leadership to make such a statement – both in legal, political and all other aspects. Let the world react, and Armenia too.

There are no conditions, absolutely none, for the residents of Artsakh to live normally. Azerbaijani military are on the approaches to all settlements, all key road junctions are under their control. And in no case will they retreat, even if there is a UN resolution.

Expert Shahin Rzayev spoke about the possibility of reintegration of Karabakh Armenians into Azerbaijani society

Even if we imagine such an unlikely scenario that the European Union would send hundreds of observers to Artsakh, little would change in the lives of the hostage-takers. And even if we imagine such a phantasmagoric version, according to which the UN or NATO will send peacekeeping forces to Artsakh and there will be a soldier near each house, even in this case there will be no normal life. There will be a version of hell.

Those who hold a different opinion should imagine the following. People remaining in Artsakh will be forced to obtain Azerbaijani citizenship. They will be forced to learn Azerbaijani, the language of hatred, the language in which anti-Armenian propaganda has been conducted for decades. They will be forced to take the subject “History of Azerbaijan” in schools, the textbook of which is full of hatred towards Armenians and humiliation of everything Armenian. But even this is not the worst of it.

Anush Gavalyan, an expert from Artsakh, wrote about the situation, which, at first glance, also seems phantasmagorical, but, unfortunately, in fact it is very real, painfully real.

Can you imagine the situation of our youth in this army? Now imagine another thing: Azerbaijan declares war on Armenia, and our Armenian soldiers have to participate in it. This is the hellish and monstrous situation in which we find ourselves.

The Russians do not want the people of Artsakh to leave the territory. Russia wants a significant part of the population to stay here to justify its criminal presence.

And Azerbaijan will want to keep the Artsakh people here temporarily. Baku wants to create a “civilized showcase” and talk about “tolerance” in its country, thus washing away all its atrocities and atrocities. And then, at an opportune moment, start bloody massacres again.

The West is also not yet inclined to the idea of evacuation, because it will have to recognize the ethnic cleansing carried out before its eyes and its shameful “powerlessness”.

But everything depends on us. If the Artsakh government is reasonable, consistent and courageous, we can achieve our goal. The Artsakh leadership is also trapped, forced by threats to accept the plan of the Azeris and Russians. But the people of Artsakh have no other choice, they must force their own authorities to turn to the international community.

We must not put people’s lives into geopolitical games again, we must not allow it. People who have seen three wars, suffered terrible losses, hunger and deprivation, must finally get the right to human life. We must give our children a chance to live a creative and dignified life.

An organized evacuation has another advantage: we will be able to transport and save our movable spiritual and cultural values and the state archive.”

https://jam-news.net/evacuation-of-nk-armenians-by-international-structures/

Demonstrators in Berlin call on EU leaders to intervene and stop Azeri genocidal actions in Nagorno-Karabakh

Garnik Tadevosian

 16:42,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. A demonstration was held September 23 outside the Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, demanding the German government and EU leaders to intervene and stop Azerbaijan’s genocidal actions against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The demonstration was organized by the Armenian community. A group of German politicians, students and representatives of various organizations joined the demonstration.

Lilit Kocharyan, the organizer of the protest, said, “Your participation is highly important to show that we are demanding justice for the people of Artsakh who are now suffering. People in Artsakh are trapped, there’s no contact with them, we don’t know what’s happening with the people, whether they are still alive.”

Presenting the dire situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, where there is no food, medication or other essential supplies, Kocharyan said that the people of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) are being subjected to genocide.

The demonstrators said they expect EU leaders to take effective and urgent measures to stop the Armenian genocide.

“No action has been taken, only statements addressed to Azerbaijan are being made, we need urgent steps,” she said.

The protesters were holding posters saying “Save Artsakh”, “Stop Aliyev Regime”, “Stop the Azeri aggression”, “ Stop the Ethnic Cleansing Against Armenians of Artsakh,” and others.

US Troops’ Arrival in Armenia for Training Riles Russia

Garnik Tadevosian
Voice of America
Sept 11 2023
Rob Garver

The arrival of 85 U.S. soldiers for a training mission in Armenia has sparked a strong negative reaction from the Russian government, which has long had a military alliance with that country through its Collective Security Treaty Organization.

The U.S. personnel are in Armenia for an exercise called Eagle Partner, during which they will train with 175 members of the Armenian 12th Peacekeeping Brigade. The objective is to prepare the Armenian soldiers for an assessment later this year of their ability to conform to NATO standards if deployed as peacekeepers.

The 10-day exercise will take place at training grounds near the Armenian capital, Yerevan. The American forces include members of both the 101st Airborne Division and the Kansas National Guard.

Tense moment

The arrival of U.S. troops in Armenia comes at a time when tensions are high in the region.

Armenia and Azerbaijan, its neighbor to the east, have fought two wars in the past several decades over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is within the current internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan, but which has a large Armenian population.

The most recent conflict took place in 2020, and was ended by a peace brokered by Russia, which required Armenia to return land it had previously seized from Azerbaijan. Despite the turnover, a large portion of Nagorno-Karabakh remains under the control of a breakaway ethnic Armenian government.

The cease-fire included the installation of 2,000 Russian troops in an area known as the Lachin corridor, which connects Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh. The presence of Russian troops in the corridor was supposed to allow people in Nagorno-Karabakh access to Armenia, as well as keeping open a supply line to the outside world.

Last December, though, the Azerbaijani government closed the roads, severing the supply route and creating what Armenia describes as a humanitarian crisis in the region. With many aid convoys effectively barred from entering the region, Russian peacekeepers have not intervened, angering the Armenian government.

Azerbaijan has denied it is purposefully cutting off supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh, claiming that aid caravans have been carrying contraband and are meant as a "provocation."

Fraying ties with Russia

Last week, with the arrival of American troops looming, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan criticized Russia in an interview with an Italian newspaper, saying Moscow had failed to assure Armenia's security. He accused the Russian government of stepping away from its responsibilities in the South Caucasus region.

"Armenia's security architecture was 99.999% linked to Russia, including when it came to the procurement of arms and ammunition," Pashinyan told the newspaper La Repubblica. "But today, we see that Russia itself is in need of weapons, arms and ammunition. And in this situation, it's understandable that even if it wishes so, the Russian Federation cannot meet Armenia's security needs."

Pashinyan added, "This example should demonstrate to us that dependence on just one partner in security matters is a strategic mistake."

Moscow responds

Following Pashinyan's comments, his government also took steps toward ratifying the treaty creating the International Criminal Court, a body that indicted Russian President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges over actions taken during his country's invasion of Ukraine.

The ICC was established in 2002, after being ratified by 60 countries. Since then, dozens of other countries have also ratified or acceded to the treaty on a rolling basis. If Armenia were to join, it would be the 124th country to do so.

In addition, the prime minister's wife visited the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, as part of an aid mission.

The Russian government summoned Armenia's ambassador to the Kremlin to "strongly protest" the prime minister's comments and his government's action.

In a statement Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, "The Armenian leadership has taken a series of unfriendly steps in recent days, including the launch of the process of ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the trip of the prime minister's wife Anna Hakobyan to Kiev to deliver humanitarian aid to the Nazi regime, and the holding of military exercises on Armenian territory with the participation of the United States."

In comments Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov followed up by saying that it looks "strange" for Armenia to be hosting U.S. troops when for the past two years, it has declined to participate in drills with the five other members of Collective Security Treaty Organization.

"I do not believe it will be any good for anyone, including Armenia itself," Lavrov said during a news briefing on Sunday. "Wherever the Americans arrive, it always means trouble."

On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin is in the process of trying to "make sense" of Armenia's actions.

"Against the backdrop of Armenia's reluctance to hold drills with the CSTO and its latest plan to host a joint exercise with the United States, for us, perhaps, these are decisions that will require our thorough analysis in order to understand why Armenia has decided to do this and what its goals are here," Peskov said.

Concerns about conflict

Pashinyan's government has also warned that Azerbaijani troops are massing on Armenia's borders — which Azerbaijan denies — and has been seeking international assistance in an effort to reopen a dialogue between the two countries.

In recent days, Pashinyan has reached out to the leaders of multiple Western countries, including the United States, France and Germany, seeking assistance in brokering an agreement with Azerbaijan.

On Monday, Pashinyan spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyep Erdigan, a close ally of Azerbaijan. Media reports suggested that the two had discussed ways of reducing tension in the region. The day before, Erdogan had denounced an election held by the separatist government in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Routine training

The U.S. Army characterized the Eagle Partner operation as a normal training exercise — one that expanded on a longstanding relationship the Armenian military has had with the Kansas National Guard.

"Eagle Partner is a vital opportunity for our soldiers from our two nations to build new relationships at the tactical level and to increase interoperability for peacekeeping operations," Colonel Martin O'Donnell, a spokesperson for U.S. Army Europe and Africa, said in a statement. "It also builds upon the 20-year relationship that the Kansas National Guard has cultivated with Armenia."

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story mistakenly gave 2022 as the year the International Criminal Court was established. It was 2002. VOA regrets the error.



Armenpress: Russian aid delivered to Stepanakert

Garnik Tadevosian

 09:36,

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS/ARTSAKHPRESS. A truck carrying Russian humanitarian aid for Nagorno-Karabakh has reached Stepanakert through the Akna (Aghdam)-Askeran road, ARTSAKHPRESS reported.

ARTSAKHPRESS quoted Askeran mayor Hayk Shamiryan as saying that concerned citizens who had gathered near the Tank Memorial initially protested and did not allow passage to the vehicle, but eventually agreed. The Russian Red Cross vehicle carrying the aid then reached Stepanakert with police escort.

NSS confirms release of three kidnapped Nagorno-Karabakh students from Azeri custody

Garnik Tadevosian

 17:56, 7 September 2023

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. The National Security Service on Thursday confirmed that Azerbaijan has released the three students who were kidnapped by Azerbaijani border guards.

The three men, Alen Sargsyan (born 2001), Levon Grigoryan (born 2003) and Vahe Hovsepyan (born 2003) were transferred by Azerbaijani authorities to Armenian Border Guards on September 7. The transfer took place at Hakari Bridge.

The three students were kidnapped and subsequently jailed on August 28 by Azeri border guards while traveling to Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh to continue their studies. Azeri authorities had announced that the men would be jailed for 10 days for allegedly “dishonoring” the Azeri flag.

The kidnapping was condemned by the Armenian Foreign Ministry as a gross violation by Azerbaijan of the “Trilateral Statement of November 9, 2020, legally binding Orders of the UN International Court of Justice and open contempt for the unequivocal and targeted calls of the international community, including voiced by members of the UN Security Council.”

Armenia recalls its envoy to CSTO, appoints him ambassador to the Netherlands

Garnik Tadevosian
 TASS 
Russia – Sept 5 2023
Viktor Biyagov has represented Armenia in the CSTO since 2018

YEREVAN, September 5. /TASS/. Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan has recalled the country’s Permanent Representative to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Viktor Biyagov and appointed him ambassador to the Netherlands, according to a presidential decree which was posted on the presidential website on Tuesday.

"Based on the prime minister’s proposal and in conformity with the constitution and the law on diplomatic service, to recall Viktor Biyagov as Armenia’s permanent representative to the CSTO," the decree says.

The president also signed decrees appointing Biyagov Armenia’s ambassador to the Netherlands and permanent representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Biyagov has represented Armenia in the CSTO since 2018.

The Economist: An Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan is on the point of starvation

Garnik Tadevosian
 The Economist 
Sept 4 2023

After more than eight months of an ever-tightening blockade, the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh has turned catastrophic. Bread, a staple for many people, is rationed to one loaf per family per day. Critical medicines have run out; there is so little fuel that many patients cannot get to a doctor anyway. Desperate residents have taken to social media to barter, say, home-laid eggs for a kilo of sugar. One young mother posted a photo of baby formula, saying: “I will buy this at any price.”

The siege represents the toughest tactic yet employed by the Azerbaijani government, as it seeks to regain control of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave of around 4,400 sq km (1,700 sq miles) at the heart of its decades-old conflict with Armenia. Karabakh has been internationally recognised as Azerbaijani territory since the break-up of the Soviet Union, but ethnic Armenian forces won control of it in a war that ran from 1988 to 1994 (Armenians made up most of the population). In a second war, in 2020, Azerbaijan reversed many of those losses. The Azerbaijani government is now pushing for a deal that would complete its victory.

Now surrounding the territory completely, Azerbaijan holds virtually all the cards. Armenia’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, has said he is willing to accept Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Karabakh and its tens of thousands of ethnic Armenian residents. The Armenians still hope to secure some kind of guarantee of the rights and security of the Karabakh Armenians. But an impatient Azerbaijan is trying to accelerate the diplomatic process—at the expense of the Armenian population it claims to want to welcome back into the fold.

In December government-backed Azerbaijani protesters launched a blockade of the “Lachin corridor”, the only road that leads in and out of Karabakh to Armenia. Civilian traffic was restricted and shipments into Karabakh of food, fuel and other necessities were curtailed, although enough got through to ward off severe hardship. But in April Azerbaijan dismissed the protesters and set up an official border checkpoint on the corridor; in mid-June it halted traffic altogether. No goods have got through since then.

In the face of the mounting privation inside Karabakh, Azerbaijan has offered a lifeline: to open its own road on which supplies could be sent from elsewhere in Azerbaijan. But the Karabakh Armenians see this as a Trojan horse that would lead to Azerbaijan regaining effective control of the territory. They have gone so far as to erect their own blockade, with cement blocks, on the new road. For now, their political concerns outweigh the humanitarian consequences.

International mediators, led by the European Union, are trying to help the two sides find a way out. A compromise would see both roads opened, but the governments are at loggerheads over the sequencing. The Azerbaijanis have offered to open the Lachin corridor if their road is opened first, but the Armenians say that is a trick and demand that the two roads be opened simultaneously.

Independent information from inside sealed-off Karabakh is hard to come by. But there are signs of a fierce power struggle among ethnic Armenian leaders there. At the end of August Arayik Harutyunyan, the de facto president, stepped down after coming under fire for his supposed willingness to compromise with Azerbaijanis. More intransigent figures have been ascending.

Meanwhile, frequent clashes break out at the border: on September 1st three Armenian soldiers were reported killed after cross-border firing. It is hard to see a solution to the impasse. But regardless of the outcome, any hope that the Karabakh Armenians might live peacefully in Azerbaijan is dwindling fast.■


https://www.economist.com/europe/2023/09/04/an-armenian-enclave-inside-azerbaijan-is-on-the-point-of-starvation