Author: Garnik Zakarian

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE) – A medical mission including doctors from Fresno will make an annual trip to the country of Armenia to offer humanitarian care to people in need.  

The mission comes at a time of crisis as violence has escalated between Armenia and its neighbor to the east Azerbaijan.

The pictures tell the story of a region in crisis, the aftermath of this week’s deadly military assault on Nagorno Karabakh – a small region between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

While the land is internationally considered part of Azerbaijan, it’s home to 120,000 Armenians. Azerbaijan shelling military and civilian targets killing dozens in violation of a 2020 peace agreement.

“Armenia and Armenians lived in that region for thousands of years,” said Fresno’s Honorary Consul of the Republic of Armenia in Fresno, Berj Apkarian.

As Apkarian prepares to lead his eleventh medical mission of local doctors to Armenia, he watches with concern as the violence near Armenia’s border ramps up again.

Little can be done, as the only road linking Armenia to Nagorno Karabakh has been blocked for months by Azeri troops.

“The situation is very grave right now and unfortunately we are once again being subjected to a second genocide,” Apkarian said.

The international community is taking notice. The United Nations Security Council held a hearing on the crisis calling for a peace, and a bi-partisan as a U.S. congressional delegation may soon travel to Armenia.

“A delegation to Armenia would shed greater light on why this is important and so critical 1034 that Azerbaijan keep their word,” said Congressman Jim Costa.

Congressman Costa, a member of the Congressional Armenian Caucus, is calling for hearings on the crisis and is urging President Biden and the UN to establish a peacekeeping mission to Armenia.

“This behavior of the Azerbaijani stops period, this is about good and evil,” said Congressman Costa.

There was a meeting between Azerbaijan and the Armenian lead government in Nagorno Karabakh, but no specific results have been reported.

The medical mission from Fresno leaves this week.

https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/armenia/fresno-medical-mission-leaves-to-armenia/ 

Hikmet Hajiyev, a foreign policy advisor to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, told Reuters on Saturday that a deal had been struck to open roads between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

He stressed that the roads would be opened simultaneously and added that an Azerbaijani checkpoint on the road to Armenia would remain.

This book tells the stories of the Muslims, Christians, Jews and others who made a courageous stand against the mass slaughter of Ottoman Armenians in 1915, the first modern genocide. Foreigners and Ottomans alike ran considerable risks to bear witness and rescue victims, sometimes sacrificing their lives.

Diplomats, humanitarians, missionaries, lawyers and other visitors to the Empire stood up, including Tolstoy’s daughter, Alexandra; Raphael Lemkin, the jurist who first established genocide as an international crime; and the polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen, who recognised and relieved the plight of stateless Armenian refugees. Ottoman subjects—from officials and officers to ordinary townspeople and villagers—faced near-certain death for their entire family by resisting orders and helping Armenians.

Unlike the Righteous of the Holocaust, these heroes have been systematically ignored and erased—a major injustice. Based on fresh research, and hoping to repay a moral debt to Ottoman Muslims who braved everything to rescue the authors’ forebears, this book is an important, moving testament to a grievously overlooked aspect of the Armenian tragedy.

‘[This book] has a real contemporary importance.’ – Labour Hub

On July 11th, 2023 the Azerbaijani guards issued a communiqué, declaring the temporary closure of the Lachin corridor, which serves as the sole road connecting Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The stated reason behind this closure was the alleged “involvement of Armenian Red Cross units in smuggling attempts” and they further announced that the closure would be lifted upon the conclusion of their ongoing criminal inquiry. However, it is worth noting that this situation is not new, as the corridor has been closed multiple times since December 2022. Initially, the closure happened because of ecologist activists blocking mines on the road, and later it was extended in April due to security concerns according to the Azerbaijani forces.

The closure of the Latchin corridor has had far-reaching consequences for human rights in the secessionist region. Access to vital necessities such as medicines, electricity, and food has been abruptly cut off for the 120 000 inhabitants, creating a dire situation. Dr. Vardan Lalayan, a cardiologist at the Stepanakert/Khankendi hospital, laments the shortage of stents and other medical equipment. He and his colleagues are only able to perform a mere 10% of the necessary procedures, which led to the heartbreaking loss of patients due to cardiac attacks. Moreover, this blockade has caused a food shortage, which led the de facto authorities to implement a rationing system since the beginning of January 2023. With rationing restricting to one kilo/litre of food products per person per month, health professionals have noted a significant increase in cases of immunodeficiency, anaemia, thyroid disease and worsening diabetes among women and children. In fact, as Nara Karapetyan, a mother of two children explained for Amnesty International: “We haven’t had any fruit or vegetables for over a month now. As soon as I can get hold of any food, I make sure my children eat it first, and I make do with what’s left.”. Finally, the blockade’s severe shortage of electricity and heating systems has also had a profound impact on children’s right to education: approximately 27,000 children can only access their schools for a few hours a day.

However, the tensions are not new. The Nagorno-Karabakh region has been integrated into the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist in 1923 despite being populated ethnically at 95% by Armenians. When Armenia and Azerbaijan both achieved statehood at the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, they began a war that resulted in 30 000 casualties. A ceasefire was brokered by Russia in 1994 under the name of the Bishkek Protocol, in which the Nagorno-Karabakh region has been proclaimed as independent but reliant on economic, political and military ties with Armenia. Despite attempts at peace, the mountainous enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh has rarely known a lasting ceasefire. For years, each side has accused the other of violating ceasefires, leading to renewed heavy fighting. In late September 2020, tensions erupted into the Second Nagorno-Karabakh war, which was eventually resolved by a peace deal proposed by Russia on November 9, 2020. The agreement saw Azerbaijan reclaim most of the territory, leaving Armenia with only a small portion of Karabakh. The deal also established the Lachin corridor, under the hands of Russian peacekeepers.

The peace deal has not provided definitive barriers to prevent Azerbaijan from taking control of the secessionist region. Despite ambitious international efforts to mitigate the risk of another full-blown war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, such as the dispatch of an unarmed EU mission to the Armenian side or the ruling of the International Court of Justice, diplomatic negotiations led by the EU, Russia, and the United States have faced significant challenges due to tensions in the region. Continuing mediation talks seem to be the only available option to ensure peace and ensure the fulfilment of human rights in the region, and both Baku and Yerevan appear to agree with this approach, recognizing the high costs of not reaching a negotiated peace deal.

https://theowp.org/the-lachin-corridor-in-nagorno-karabakh-unveiling-an-ongoing-humanitarian-crisis/