Nagorno Karabakh (also known as Artsakh) is a region home to 120,000 Armenian Christians, who have lived in a free republic since 1991.
- Since December 12, the only road connecting NK to the rest of the world has been blocked by the armed forces of Azerbaijan. No civilians can come in or out.
- Supplies of food, medicine, and fuel have collapsed.
- Thousands of people are separated from their families.
- Over 1,700 people have had to delay necessary surgeries for lack of
medicine. - Azerbaijan has also cut off electricity and gas to the region.
- For pregnant women under the siege, the miscarriage rate has tripled.
- Azerbaijani snipers regularly atack Armenian farmers trying to grow
food. - Human rights groups are warning of an impending genocide.
In the mountains of Karabakh, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world faces destruction.
In a small region called Nagorno Karabakh, 120,000 Armenian Christians have been under siege since December 12. They have no gas and litle electricity, and food and medicine are running out. Farmers trying to grow food are shot at by snipers. The dictatorship of Azerbaijan wants to drive the Armenian Christians of Karabakh out of their homeland. On December 12, Azerbaijan closed the only road linking Nagorno Karabakh to the Republic of Armenia, and from there to the rest of the world.
Human rights groups have issued a Genocide Warning for Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh.
Who are the Armenians?
Armenia was the first nation to convert to Christianity, in 301 AD. In their long history, they have survived many waves of persecution. They were conquered and re-conquered by the Persian, Islamic, Turkish, and Russian empires. During World War I, the Islamic Otoman Empire annihilated over a million Armenian Christians – an event known today as the Armenian Genocide. Under Soviet Communism, every church in Nagorno Karabakh was closed, and most of its priests were sent to the Gulag.
Through everything, the Armenians have held on to their faith and their Christian identity.
The threat:
Based on borders drawn by the Soviet Union in 1921, Azerbaijan claims Nagorno Karabakh as its own territory. In a war that followed the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh won their independence, and became a free republic, albeit unrecognized by the world.
But Azerbaijan never gave up its goal of conquering the territory. Three years ago, Azerbaijan and its ally, Turkey, launched a new war to conquer Karabakh and destroy the Armenian Christians there.
They killed thousands of soldiers, bombed civilian areas, and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. Armenian civilians caught behind enemy lines were shot and beheaded. Their killers filmed their crimes, and uploaded them to social media for the world to see.
Russia forced a stop to Azerbaijan’s invasion before they could destroy the Armenians completely. But since the start of the war in Ukraine, Azerbaijan has upped its aggression. In September 2022, it launched a massive two-day atack on the Republic of Armenia itself.
And in December, they laid siege to Nagorno Karabakh.
Azerbaijan has systematically destroyed every trace of Armenians or Armenian history in all the territory it controls. Its dictator, Ilham Aliyev, regularly uses dehumanizing language to describe Armenians: “dogs,” “rats,” “humanoid creatures.” He has pledged to “drive them out of our lands.” He claims that not only Karabakh, but most of Armenia is “our historical lands” which “we will definitely return to.”
If Azerbaijan takes control of Nagorno Karabakh, the 1,700-year-old Christian community there will be destroyed forever.
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