Opinion: Artsakh is Armenia; it always was, and it always will be…

When I was 11 or 12 years old, my mom told me to memorize a poem that my grandpa (whom I call Pipo) wrote in 2001.

“It’s very important!” she said. “You’ll make him proud if you recite it for him.”

I love my grandpa, and I have always loved memorizing poetry, so I did as I was told.

However, at the time I didn’t understand the meaning and significance of the poem.

The first two lines of the poem translated go something like this:

“My priceless country, my mighty Artsakh,

My mighty and undefeated country, my heaven Artsakh.”

I didn’t learn what “Artsakh” was until four years later, and only a few years later, “Artsakh” once again entered international headlines.

The Artsakh conflict, also known as the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, has its origins in the way the Soviet Union organized the territories of the Caucasus. Artsakh — the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh — was placed under the control of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, despite being 95 percent Armenian. In 1988, Artsakh voted to join Armenia, and after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Artsakh gained independence alongside Armenia and Azerbaijan.

War broke out soon after, resulting in tens of thousands of casualties, and tens of thousands more displaced from their homes. Armenia gained control in 1993, and a ceasefire brokered in 1994. However, in 2016, Azerbaijan initiated a series of clashes that culminated in a bloody six-week battle in 2020.

As a Glendale resident, all I remember from this era are protests filled with seas of red, blue and orange; strained and emotional voices plead for support and many marched through the streets of Glendale and Beverly Hills. Little changed as a result of these protests, though.

In 2022, Azerbaijan blocked Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Artsakh to Armenia, preventing medical supplies, food and other basic necessities from reaching Armenians in Artsakh.

Azerbaijan gained control over Artsakh Sept. 20 2023, and now 120,000 of my people are fleeing their indigenous land.

Artsakh will no longer exist starting Jan. 1, 2024.

To a lot of non-Armenians, the Artsakh situation is just another one of the many territorial issues that exist throughout the world. But, many people approach this conflict through a fact-based perspective without taking into consideration the context that makes this war so significant.

In 1915, the Ottoman Empire, under the leadership of the Young Turks government, systematically killed and expelled 1.5 million indigenous Armenians from Eastern Anatolia, what used to be Western Armenia. The mass murder, known as the Armenian Genocide, is supported by numerous accounts of evidence.

More than a century later, Turkey not only denies the systematic killing of Armenians, but aids Azerbaijan in expelling Armenians from yet more of their ancestral homeland.

Additionally, Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, is an avowed Armenophobe. In 2012, he pardoned Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani lieutenant eight years after he murdered Gurgen Margaryan, an Armenian lieutenant with an axe while Margaryan was sleeping in his dormitory. In Safarov’s court hearing, he justified killing Margaryan because of his Armenian heritage. Instead of a disgrace, Safarov was viewed as a national hero.

If Artsakh, a region full of Armenians, is controlled by the same man who pardoned a gruesome Armenophobic murderer, I can only imagine how dangerous this can become.

To me, Azerbaijan is perpetrating a second genocide.

But Artsakh will forever be part of Armenia’s heritage. Artsakh is filled with ancient Armenian archeological sites. There is physical evidence that Artsakh belongs to my people.

Armenia, the world’s first Christian country, has hundreds of ancient churches and monasteries. These historic churches, easily distinguished by their subtly pink bricks, are also found in Artsakh. One of my biggest dreams is to see these beautiful churches, but I’m afraid that I’ll never get the chance to do so.

But even these archaeological sites rooted in Armenian heritage are in danger of being destroyed.

Azerbaijan has been destroying khachkars (Armenian cross-stones) in theNakhichevan Autonomous Republic, a region which according to Armenian legend, was founded by Noah. Some of these stones date back to the sixth century.

I can only imagine how many more Armenian khachkars and churches will be destroyed and how many generations of Armenians will never be able to lay eyes on or pray in. Armenians like myself deserve to see the monuments built by my people and the land inhabited by them since antiquity.

The third stanza of Pipo’s poem is translated as:

“Is humanity blind?

They don’t see your breathtaking churches

They don’t see your numerous khachkars

Which are the blood and sweat of your sons.”

Pipo was right: the whole of humanity must be blind to not see Artsakh and its Armenian heritage. The evidence that Artsakh is indigenous Armenian land is in front of everyone’s eyes. My people have a right to self-determination on their native and historic land.

It’s hard to focus in my classes knowing that on the other side of the world, my people are being killed, my culture erased and my native homeland stolen. As I wrote this article, I paced around the room every five minutes to ease my anger and hold back my tears.

In response to these attacks, the Western world has little to say. The United States, for example, only released boilerplate statements calling for ceasing of hostilities, rather than providing full-throated political and moral support for Artsakh’s cause.

After the Armenian Genocide, Armenians lost the entirety of the Western portion of our ancestral homeland, with our heritage and ancient churches left in danger of cultural erasure. Now, those black-and-white pictures of my people being marched out of their homeland during the 1915 genocide are not just of a bygone era, but a current reality.

The last four lines of Pipo’s poem are translated as:

“And you’re here today, a free and independent state,

Which was the dream of all Armenians

Let the whole world know that you

Belong to Armenia; you are and always will be.”

Though these words don’t ring so true anymore, it doesn’t change the fact that Artsakh is Armenia; it always was, and it always will be.

Contact Francine Ghazarian at ghazarian@oxy.edu