United Boston Armenian Community Calls for Ending Artsakh Blockade

Dervartanian said that the protests of so-called eco-activists which were closing down the Lachin corridor connecting Artsakh to Armenia were not genuine, as no protests occur in Azerbaijan unless authorized by the authoritarian government. The blockade, she said, should be understood within the larger context of a genocidal pattern of acts by the Azerbaijani regime against Armenians and the Republic of Armenia, separating Artsakh from the latter.

The statements of governments like the US, France and many European governments condemning the blockade have not been followed by actions. She urged Congress to back House Resolution No. 180 to stop all US assistance to Azerbaijan and issue sanctions until it lifts the blockade. She called on the US State Department and its ambassadors in Yerevan and Baku to travel to Artsakh, Samantha Power, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, to organize an international airlift of supplies there, and all citizens to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Armenians of Artsakh, not leaving them alone.

Aram Arkun, Managing Editor of the Armenian Mirror-Spectator and Executive Director of the Tekeyan Cultural Association of the United States and Canada, declared that everyone had gathered at the State House to deliver the same message in a united fashion. “The world is a cruel place, full of natural tragedies like earthquakes and manmade ones like wars, which claim untold numbers of victims,” he said. When one learns of such tragedies, he continued, most people are moved. Yet, he said, “When we have the ability to help but do not, we bear a certain degree of complicity in the outcome. … and the people of Artsakh have called out to us and to the world, asking for help under the difficult conditions of the blockade.”

The entire population of Artsakh, whose ancestors had lived on its lands for some two thousand years, has been rendered defenseless, he noted, and is being slowly suffocated in pursuit of a political aim. Azerbaijan wants to take over this land without its Armenian inhabitants, and if the latter does not flee due to the pressure, Azerbaijan might even resort to genocidal violence.

Americans must call on their federal representatives to break the blockade and sanction Azerbaijan, he exclaimed, making it understand that it will pay a price for inhumane actions.

Garo Sakaian, representing the Armenian General Benevolent Union’s New England District and chairman of the AGBU Young Professionals of Boston, defined ethnic cleansing and indicated that what was happening in Artsakh fell into this category. He quoted Nelson Mandela, who said, “To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity” and asked those present to become an important voice by engaging with their governmental representatives. The United States must be a leader in protecting humanity, Sakaian declared. When we say never again, we must mean it, he concluded, as human lives are at stake.