News has come that “We Are Our Mountains”, also known as “Tatik-Papik” (“Grandmother and Grandfather” in Armenian) monument in Artsakh is in danger of being destroyed by Azerbaijan which has already destroyed or portrayed as “Caucasian Albanian” several Armenian monuments in Nakchivan and other parts of it’s territory, also another news has come that a street in Artsakh has been renamed by Azerbaijan after Enver Pasha Turkish Minister of War in the Ottoman Empire, who was involved in the infamous Armenian genocide, within the Ministry of War. The ethnic Armenian people of Artsakh are in danger of genocide and Armenian culture of this region is in danger of obliteration yet substantial part of the world is silent. The author of this article has travelled in all the countries of the Caucasus and he would like to state that the world needs to come together and ensure peace is established in this region.
Comity of nations have an obligation to protect all the members of the global family, from high handedness of those nations who believe erroneously in the supernaturally ordained, historically pre-destined expansion as a superior state, annihilating or absorbing those on their periphery. Unfortunately again and again international institutions have failed in protecting threatened nations from their aggressive neighbours. League of Nations was formed to establish world peace but it failed miserably in several areas of conflict and could not stop the Spanish Civil War, Imperial Japanese Army’s invasion of China and the German invasion of Czechoslovakia; as an organisation it failed to prevent the second World War and had to be dissolved on April 20, 1946. The UN replaced the ineffective League of Nations, as an organisation to ensure world peace, it has been expected that UN would stand with nations under threat from aggressors, but unfortunately when it comes to this, UN has failed the ethnic Armenians in Artsakh who are undergoing a forced displacement after the attack by Azerbaijan.
Author of this article in Armenia. Image Credits: Dr. Arkaja Goswami, mother of the author.
Armenia is an ancient nation, the first nation that adopted Christianity as a state religion, and a nation that has been under threat of being annihilated by it’s expansionist neighbours on the West and East. Like Neville Chamberlain adopted a policy called appeasement which was Britain’s policy in the 1930s of allowing Hitler to expand German territory unchecked, in the hope of avoiding war, several world leaders have ignored the expansionism of Aliyev’s Azerbaijan that along with Pakistan a nation infamous for it’s state sponsored terror organisations and Erdogan’s Türkiye, have been invading Armenia and have succeeded in illegally occupying Artsakh a region with majority Armenian population. Several nations have raised their voices for the support of Ukraine and Palestine and even provided military support to Ukraine and have been asking the global South to support Ukraine against Russia, but when it comes to the Armenians most of these nations do not care.
Affluent nations of Western Europe if today do not stand with persecuted Armenians will have no moral high ground to tell global South to not use war as a medium of foreign policy. We have read about Armenian genocide in history and now when global politics is leading to another mass persecution of Armenians by Azerbaijani army we should all raise our voice in support of the Armenians, for the sake of humanity. Azerbaijan has been indulging in threatening Armenia for a long period of time, and celebrating the defeat of Armenians. When the author of this article was in Azerbaijan he saw that, almost everywhere there was display of Azerbaijani occupation from the buildings that had flags of the so called “three brothers” Turkey, Azerbaijan and Pakistan (A nation that has illegally occupied a part of Indian Kashmir which India wants back), to metro stations with posters showing military marching and slogans “Qarabağ Azərbaycandır!” and even water bottles that have “taste of victory and Qarabağ Azərbaycandır!“ written on them!
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Azerbaijan and it’s friends in the war against Armenia are very similar, all of them have used state power to decrease the population of ethnic and religious minorities in their countries. Ottoman Turks commited Armenian genocide in which at least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million Armenians died. As per a New York Times article by Maria Abi-Habib and Zia ur-Rehman, at independence in 1947 of India from British occupation, Hindus composed 20.5 percent of the population of the areas that now form Pakistan. In the following decades, the percentage shrank rapidly, and by 1998 – the last government census to classify people by religion – Hindus were just 1.6 percent of Pakistan’s population. Similarly Azerbaijan has ensured a reduction in population of ethnic Armenians in Nakchivan and are now openly ensuring the mass forced displacement of Armenians from Artsakh.
The entire world needs to understand that Armenia’s existence is in danger, and all world leaders must try and ensure peace in the Caucasus region. At the moment approximately 1,00,000 ethnic Armenians have been displaced using force by the Azerbaijani authorities that had in 2022, blocked the Lachin Corridor under a fake pretext of environmental concerns, because of which people of Artsakh faced severe scarcity of water and food and then recently in the early afternoon of September 19, Azerbaijan launched a full-scale invasion of Artsakh and now almost 1,00,000 ethnic Armenians from this region have fled to Armenia because of forced displacement by Azerbaijan. For the sake of humanity world leaders must support Armenians who have lost their home, help them get food and shelter and ensure that even though Artsakh has now been lost to Azerbaijan, Armenia an ancient country is protected and not annihilated like several ancient cultures were annihilated in the past by expansionist powers. India is a peace loving nation, we have supported nations under threat whenever needed, when Pakistan started genocide of Bengali Muslims in 1971, India helped in the establishment of Bangladesh, today India is a major world power and should talk to both Armenia and Azerbaijan to ensure peace in the Caucasus region.
Author: Mr. Arunansh B. Goswami, Advocate in Supreme Court of India and Historian, New Delhi, India.
