Over the last couple of months, we have heard incessantly about Israel. There are various reasons that country’s situation occupies a pre-eminent position in the public consciousness. But very bad situations occur also elsewhere in other parts of the world.
One situation has been in Armenia. In contrast with the situation in Israel, Armenia is a Christian country being victimized by the Muslim nation Azerbaijan. We therefore do not hear about Armenia’s predicament.
This article outlines the humanitarian catastrophe that has taken place there over the last couple of months. There are now rumblings of a peace deal, but the Armenians already had territory taken from them; and 100,000 folks have been displaced. The bottom line is that the Azerbaijani’s have also been in the process of starving out the Armenian people.
Moreover, this is not the first time the Armenians have been victimized at the hands of the Muslims. They were subjected to a genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks just over a century ago.
This is just one corner of the world where Christians are being victimized. There are many others. But we often tend not to hear about it.
News cycles being what they are, it understandable that little attention has been paid to this war.
There are so many players involved… the UK; Russia; Iran; Turkey; the US; the UN, that is difficult to tell who is on whose side.
Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians have fled from Nagorno-Karabakh since the territory surrendered to Azerbaijan on 20 September.
Local forces in Karabakh agreed to be disarmed and disbanded after an Azerbaijani military offensive triggered intense fighting.
The breakaway republic and its institutions will “cease to exist” from 1 January 2024, the region’s separatist leader has said.
The territory is recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan but large areas of it have been controlled by ethnic Armenians for three decades.
It is at the heart of one of the world’s longest-running conflicts.
Between 2012 and 2014, Azerbaijan created a slush fund of USD $2.9 billion used to bribe European and American politicians, journalists, lawmakers, and academics to lobby for Azerbaijani interests abroad, including promoting a pro-Azerbaijan agenda for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This form of bribery has been referred to as “caviar diplomacy”.The laundering scheme has operated by wiring millions of euros into the private bank accounts of influential Western figures and by providing them with luxurious trips to Azerbaijan. The European Azerbaijani Society (TEAS) lobbying group has played a large role in this by hiring European PR professionals, parliament members, and former ministers.
It is a wonder Hunter Biden didn’t get in on this action.