“In the end, what will these deprivations cost?”
“After the 44-day war, we realized that it would be challenging, yet we chose to live and work in Artsakh because we realized that the only precondition for keeping Artsakh Armenian is not to allow depopulation. In fact, before the war, it would have been easier for me to think about emigration than now, when we have given thousands of young lives for this land, including the loss of my brother and my uncle’s son.”
Tatevik Khachatryan, journalist of Artsakh Public Radio is Aravoti’s interlocutor. We discuss the 140-day blockade, expectations, hopes, emotions, and worldwide events. “Armenians of Karabakh should either take Azerbaijani citizenship or find another place to live.”
The President of Azerbaijan announced the other day. The Prime Minister of RA asserts his thesis that according to the Madrid principles, Artsakh was recognized as a part of Azerbaijan. Of course, these statements were followed by the counter-reaction of the forces represented in the Artsakh parliament. There were rebuttals to those claims from Armenia and the opposition circles. In these realities, what are the moods of the people of Artsakh living under siege for more than 140 days, frustration, incompetence, or what? Tatevik responds to my question.
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“Aliyev can declare many things, but there is an international law according to which nations have the right to self-determination. What remains of Nikol Pashinyan’s statement can be interpreted without being interpreted because there is a legacy of negotiations and no shortage of open sources. If there are people who prefer to believe the RA Prime Minister’s interpretation rather than what they read with their own eyes, then it is a problem of a completely different dimension. You mentioned that they countered from Artsakh. It should be so because the people living in Artsakh have the right to have a position on any issue related to their destiny and express it freely.
As for public sentiments, it is clear that people are concerned, to put it mildly. It is not easy to live in a siege for months without gas, with the lights off several times a day, without fuel, food, medicine, and household items, but for those of us who live here, we feel helpless only when we hear the news about the victims. Human loss is the only thing that is irreversible․
“In the end, what will be the price of these deprivations?” on her part, on behalf of herself and other young people from Artsakh, my other interlocutor, Mariam Abrahamyan, asks a question to politicians and the international community. She is an accountant by profession; she created and coordinated the “Artsakh Mothers’ Club” group on the Facebook social network to somehow be helpful to the mothers of Artsakh in matters of food, household, medical and various consultations.
Dealing with the problems raised by the “community of mothers” daily, she says that several humanitarian issues – lack of gas, fan outages, lack of food, and some household issues – cause difficulties, especially in families with small children, and perhaps there are also disappointments. But; “If the society had a clear idea about the self-determination of Artsakh, all these problems would not bother them, including me. Artsakh Armenians do not know the answer to this question: in the end, what will be the price of these deprivations?
The other day, former Minister of State Ruben Vardanyan, answering the question about the possibility of a prosperous and safe life for young people in Artsakh, said that the young people of Artsakh should formulate, so to speak, their ideas for tomorrow and not be afraid of taking responsibility. Is there an idea for tomorrow? What does it look like?
“In my opinion, every Armenian living in Artsakh should think about the continuous struggle. We should not expect the international community to move from calls and concerns to taking concrete steps by organizing several actions and presenting a complaint. It may not be all that after the continuous struggle, considering that superpowers are involved in these dirty political games, but at least we will be at ease in front of our conscience in the sense that we did not remain silent, we did not tolerate, and we fought our share of the fight. Every Armenian living in Artsakh now has a dream: to live in the land saved by the blood of his compatriots,” says Mariam.
And Tatevik’s idea of tomorrow in Artsakh has not changed since 1988. “Our ultimate goal is a safe and secure Artsakh that has thrown off the yoke of Azerbaijan and joined Mother Armenia. However, after 44 days, that goal became more like a dream. Nevertheless, the geopolitical situation in the region and worldwide began to change very quickly and irregularly. Therefore, the hope that there will be good opportunities to use the situation to our advantage does not disappear. The day that hope fades, Artsakh will suffer the fate of Nakhichevan. We can only hope that we will be so strong that we will be able to resist Azerbaijan’s never-ending military aggressions and economic persecution until the moment when Armenia becomes stronger and will be able to stand up for the protection of the rights of its citizens living in Artsakh.”
Nelly GRIGORYAN
“Aravot” daily, 21.04.2023
