On December 24, 2022, exactly three years ago, many Stepanakert citizens walked to Shushi, 12 kilometers away, where Russian peacekeepers had barricaded the sole road to Yerevan, explaining that it was for the “safety” of Artsakh Armenians, and if they let them reach the Azerbaijani “eco-activists” who were on the other side of the Russians, it is possible that there will be bloodshed between Armenians and Azerbaijanis, because there are Azerbaijanis with weapons there
On that day, the Armenians said, “If you don’t open the road, tomorrow we will come with our women and children and open it.”
Life was becoming unbearable. There was a shortage of everything, such as gauze in pharmacies; there were nightly queues for bread. Fruits and vegetables were disappearing from the once abundant market within hours. There was no fuel, no traffic in the city, and from villages far and nearby, villagers brought to the city on horses and donkeys what the soil yielded. There’s a week left until New Year’s, but no one was in the mood to celebrate.
On the Armenian side, trucks carrying food and flour were banned from entering Artsakh, and in the capital city Stepanakert itself, women were already baking bread from pig feed and barley bran.
From Aghdam/Akna, Azerbaijani Red Crescent trucks loaded with flour wanted to “deliver help.” It was simply blackmail: either you have to eat Azerbaijani bread, or we will not let Armenian bread reach Nagorno-Karabakh. However, the Artsakh Armenians had closed the Askeran-Akana (Aghdam) highway to prevent Azerbaijani trucks from entering Artsakh.
The “conclusion” was that the Artsakh Armenians did not accept the “humanitarian” aid from Azerbaijan and preferred Goris lavash on September 25, 2023, when they were forced to leave Artsakh. Today, It feels as if this tragedy didn’t happen just three years ago. The events taking place in Armenia and the world have “erased” the topic of Artsakh and Artsakh Armenians in general: from authority-church relations in Armenia to the Russian-Ukrainian war, there is a bigger fish to fry.
