Around 120,000 Christians have been displaced from their ancient homeland of Artsakh in the southern Caucuses and forced to flee for their lives after the Muslim government of Azerbaijan bombarded and invaded the Nagorno-Karabakh region in September this year – though this has been seldom covered by the mainstream media, which has focused almost exclusively on the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Hundreds of ethnic Armenians living in the predominantly Christian enclave were killed in the 19-20 September attack, while military and political leaders were swiftly arrested. The Armenian human rights ombudsman, Anahit Manasyan, explained last month, “[n]umerous bodies, including those of children and women, bearing signs of torture and mutilation, have been taken to Armenia from Artsakh.”
The violent bombardment was the second since late September 2020 after the Azerbaijani government bombed the Artsakh region over a six-week period, destroying civilian areas, critical infrastructure, schools, and kindergartens indiscriminately.
The violence was shortly suspended in November 2020. But Azerbaijani aggression failed to cease completely as it once again began an illegal blockade of the area from December 2022 until September this year, forcing the Christian natives to survive on almost no food, low medical supplies, or energy for nine months.
Worse still, there is growing concern among the international community that Azerbaijan may launch a full-scale invasion into Armenia in the coming weeks. United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken himself admitted he was “deeply concerned by Azerbaijan’s military actions.”
The Artsakh area, called “Nagorno-Karabakh” by the Azerbaijani government, was recognized as part of Azerbaijan after Soviet Russia’s Josef Stalin granted the land to them in the 1920s. However, it has never been part of an independent Azerbaijan.
“Nobody wants to leave his homeland, but we had to in order to save the lives of our children, to protect them from war, starvation, and further atrocities of Azeris,” said Lyudmila Melquomyan, one of the Christians forced to flee the conflict.
