By Nadeera Dickwella
After the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Turks at the begining of the last century, the world thought it would be the last time that such atrocity on a targeted ethnic group would ever happen, only to be proven wrong by Adolf Hitler who with his heinous final solution massacred 6 million Jews. The post second world war order led by the United States had a larger emphasis on human rights and the enforced democratic institutions along with international bodies such as the United Nations were supposed to guarantee a world without human tragedies, let alone a genocide. But in Rwanda humanity failed yet again. The power-hungry political elites have shown no regret in conquering lands, repressing populations and imposing sieges amounting to acts of genocide time and again.
The latest tragedy unfolding in such a connotation has been in news circles for nearly a century. Lying in a geopolitical hotspot right under the soft underbelly of the Russian Federation, the population in this 3,170 km² unrecognized republic is home to nearly 150,000 plus people.
The people known as ethnic Armenians in the Artsakh Republic are not just another repressed community but a warrior nation that has fended off large enemies, fought and emerged victorious in wars and, most importantly, fiercely preserved its cultural heritage and religion. Considered by some to be the direct descendants of Noah who saved humanity from extinction, the Armenians of this tiny region have a history dating back to thousands of years, unlike some of its neighbors who sprung into existence much later.
As a result of the Soviet delimitation, they happened to be an autonomous region of the Azerbaijani SSR who had been sworn enemies and who took pride in annihilating them at every turn. Although this could be interpreted as another royal flub of the Soviets, the reason was a classic power play by Stalin in containing the Turks in their grand project of uniting people of Turkic origin. The dissolution of the USSR presented an opportunity for Baku to swallow the Artsakh republic known as Nagarno Karabakh at the time. Outnumbered and outgunned, their fate was sealed. In a Goliath and David style conflict known as the first Karabakh war, the Armenians in Artsakh decisively defeated the Azerbaijanis in a true fashion of valor and glory. Fast forward three decades, they are facing yet another existential threat. The same old enemy from Baku has come up with the most inhumane, criminal, shocking strategy to finish off the Armenians in Artsakh for good. Their scheme to impose a blockade of Artsakh is reminiscent of a siege in medieval times. What is unfolding in the tiny mountainous region is a true horror and slowly but gradually turning into a genocide of a new genre.
What started as ecoactivism has been turned into mass ecoterrorism. Baku is taking pride in completely cutting off Artsakh from its only lifeline that runs through what is known as the Lachin corridor. This is happening while the European Union pumps billions to Baku’s treasury with its purchase of blood oil and gas, while the Russian Federation, which is supposed to guarantee the peace and the stability in the region, keeps a blind eye. Tens of condemnations, calls for restoring the Lachin corridor by various political figures have fallen to deaf ears. As it has always been the case Armenians are forced to fight a lone battle of their own.
