Azerbaijan’s provocation, and the proportionate response of our armed forces that took place two days ago will again strain the situation in the frontline. I think it still will not reach a large-scale war, but that there will be clashes, and that both sides will suffer losses, I think, is unavoidable. The use of civilians as live shields and yelling afterwards is an adopted strategy in international practice, and (I think unfairly) holds the name of one of the nations. I intentionally will not repeat the term not to offend that nation.
Generally, I want to talk about respect for all nations, all, including Azeris, and Turks. We know the purpose of their two states: the heads of those countries do not want Artsakh, they want us not to live in this region. This is the aim of the Turkish state for a long time – more than a century. We have to use force and self-defence in order to counter these goals. If they fire on us, we need to fire back, if the enemy’s soldier is trying to approach our positions, he must be killed.
But the hatred towards the nation, the aspiration to revenge all the nation should not blind our minds. First, because the war requires composure. Second, I think that we are fighting not only for our land or for the protection of our people, we also fight for the sake of values through which we want Armenians to introduce themselves to the world, and why not also to make that world kinder and more tolerant?
That’s why when an Azeri (let’s suppose, as a comment on our website) writes, “You, Armenians are…”, and then labels a negative feature, I simply delete that comment, and I never answer, “That are you, Azeris …”. Because I do not think that any negative (and, of course, positive) feature can be labeled to a whole nation. That is why when an Azerbaijani child becomes a victim of war, it is just as painful for me as much as the death of an Armenian child or of any other nation. The enemy speculates it for political purposes, but the death of a two-year-old child, in my opinion, should be out of speculation.
I do not believe that peace can be established between our nations in the near future. But it is possible to remain a human even in case of a war.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
