Photo: Armenian people with the support of the Committee of Armenians, the local community and Greeks demonstrate in front of the White Tower, the symbol of Thessaloniki city in Greece on 03 October 2020 in support of Artsakh and they protest against the war that broke out in recent days in Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan with the support of Turkey. The rally is about Azerbaijan's aggression against the Armenian people with full support from Turkey as Azerbaijan launched attacks. Thessaloniki, Greece (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
On September 27th of this year, fighting broke once again between Azerbaijan and the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, or Artsakh, as it is known in Armenia. The resulting conflict that has now lasted several weeks, and may be escalating, has already resulted in hundreds of deaths. Many are now speaking out of the risk the ethnic Armenians face from an Azerbaijani onslaught, this would not of course be the first time that the Armenian people had faced a genocidal threat.
In 1915, Turkey, then as the Ottoman Empire, unleashed in the midst of World War 1 an ethnic cleansing campaign against Armenians resulting in 1.5 million deaths. It is widely regarded as one of the worst genocides of the 20th century, alongside the Jewish holocaust and the Rwandan genocide of 1994. However, Turkey, who is now sending forces to assist Azerbaijan, has refused to ever acknowledge the genocide, nor offer any sort of apology.
Now in 2020, Armenians in Artsakh stay in bomb shelters as missiles rain down upon them, with their electricity cut and communication lines severed.
Artsakh, while lying within Azerbaijani territory, is populated overwhelmingly by Christian ethnic Armenians who are loyal to the Armenian state. They have long claimed that they are subject to discrimination and brutality at the hands of the Muslim majority Azerbaijani government and have sought reunification with Armenia.
Armenian PM Pashinyan announced on October 3 as the violence escalated:
"Since September 27, Azerbaijan has unleashed an aggressive war against the Armenian people of, also known as the Artsakh Republic, in south Caucasus. With the direct support it receives from Turkey, Azerbaijan is indiscriminately bombing residential areas across the region. Through these assaults, Azerbaijan and Turkey are once again endangering the existence of Artsakh and the survival of Armenia."
He added:
"We are facing a fateful chapter in our history. The objective the Azerbaijani-Turkish bandits pursue is not to resolve a military or a military-political task. They are not here to deal with Karabakh or the Karabakh issue. They have not come with the objective of capturing territories, villages, cities. Their key target is the Armenian nation. Their objective is to carry on with their genocidal policy. And they have set themselves the task of bringing to completion the Armenian Genocide."
While it may be imagined unbelievable that a region within a semi-developed modern country could be faced with actual genocide, one only has to look at the people that are being shipped into the region to see that the threat truly exists. It is thought thousands of Jihadis, including the notorious Hamza division, who have been fighting in Syria and Libya, are now in the region fighting on behalf of Turkey and Azerbaijan.
It is clear that such people have carried out genocide and war crimes in the past and that should they be given free reign they will likely do the same to the Armenian population of Artsakh.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement:
"Once again I condemn Armenia that attacked Azerbaijani lands yesterday. Armenia must withdraw from the places it occupies. The crisis that started with the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh in the region must be put to an end."
Clearly indicating that he does not believe Armenians have a right to live within the territories they have lived for centuries.
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