by the way, you don’t get that it is not really fare that palestine gets a lot of attention, but artsakh(nagorno-karabakh) problem does not, and those who managed to not be expelled or killed, are now considered occupants just because they were able to stay alive and not become refugees. if they would become refugees, the international community, and people like you would say that “it’s very sad”, but now, when these people, well some of them, managed to live with dignity already more than 20 years, well, by paying with lives of many, of course, but live where they used to, now some think that this gives them right to tell that “these barbarians are killing each other”, which is actually very imperialistic thinking, but clearly, these people would not live there if not the failure to expell them because of the armenian resistance. and armenia does not get sanctions from the international community, because everybody knows the truth - there would be no single armenian in artsakh, if they would not defend themselves. and yes, if we would not help them.
actually, i really understand the importance of not changing the borders. because that could kindle the war, and many could be killed. so i am the first, seriously, who thinks, that changing the borders even on post soviet space, where those borders were drawn by colonial administration without taking in consideration what’s “fair” but because of their short term political interests, let’s say good relationships of early bolsheviks with turkey, and trading armenian land (i mean the actual republic of armenia, not some historical, virtual land) for the port cities (batumi), so still i think that changing borders is a very bad idea. but! when there is a choice - you don’t change the borders, and people live peacefully, even discriminated, but in peace, then let’s keep borders, bad peace is better than war.
but when people anyway get exterminated, then you don’t have peace anyway. whether you fight, or you die/leave without it. and i mean really exterminated, not like in crimea, where nobody had a danger of being even expelled. (well now tatars and ukrainians have that danger). i am already used to participate discussions why crimea and artsakh cases are absolutely different, but that will be too much for you. anyway this post won’t get much attention.
and yes, this is very important to me and each and every armenian, not because those are armenians, or we dream of an expansion, or “armenia from sea to sea”, there are armenians in georgia, and guess what, they live, well, sometimes get discriminated, but still, nobody exterminates them, and such a surprise, nobody said that armenia occupied parts of georgia, right? while i know, that during the russian-georgian war russia tried to ignite armenian-georgian conflict. i cannot prove that, but military people who knew, told me, - so this is important to each of us not because of imperialism we cannot actually afford, but because anyone has a friend or relative in artsakh. just anyone. when you know someone, you feel their pain, and you can identify with them as well. they always were, and are a part of our society. they were coming to study to armenia, they were working here, and though soviet azerbaijan made everything that there would be no feasible physical connection - for instance no real road from artsakh to armenia, but it was impossible to cut the connections that way. and when you know your friend’s sister or brother is under the fire, it’s very influential, you cannot be indifferent. it does not matter that’s not your sister. that’s too close to not care deeply.
i strongly believe there are cases, when you need to pay, but stay with dignity. let’s say, you are in a country where you can be punished for what you say, no free speech. first they burn your car, then they put you to jail. or you go to the political rally, and they catch you. that does not mean that you don’t have to go to the rally. that means that when you want to live with dignity, it means, you go to the rally, and you know you can end up in jail. that’s what you have to pay. it’s inevitable. otherwise you don’t respect yourself. so to me this is similar. they tried to eliminate the population, first by the help of soviet army, then by themselves. they failed miserably. now they sold a lot of oil and have a lot of military power, got a lot of arms from our “strategic partner and alley” called russia, and the military budget of their country exceeds the whole budget of armenia. we already paid by the years of blockade, huge emigration, stagnating economics. but that’s the price, when you have hostages. and we have hostages there, in artsakh, actually. that’s not a pleasure. nobody feels that we are occupants, we feel that we have people who live under constant threat. and one year ago, during 4-6 days war, that got confirmed. azeri army entered the villages, they could manage to, and killed, cut years, the elderly people who could not leave. the whole rhetoric of their media was along the lines of “armenians run from karabakh, it’s our land”, and after that they want to use all their resources to make us leave artsakh alone, to get control over it by using international community and the law. well that’s very nice. so we do not feel occupants, we feel like someone who has close hostages would feel. i don’t even talk about people who live in other places near the border, not necessarily in artsakh. or actually any of us could go to war at any moment, we know that. we are not happy about that. just it is what it is.
#armenia #artsakh #karabakh #freedom