Armenian Christians Update
As the Muslim onslaught to purge Azerbaijan of Armenian Christians rages on thousands have fled the Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023. Since this mass exodus they have received little to no support from Western governments i.e. the EU and the United States.
This April 25th, 2024, article from the “America The Jesuit Review” - by Kevin Clarke sums up the yawning passivity of the Wests response to the Armenian plight. Title: “Why isn’t anyone talking about the exodus of Christians in Nagorno-Karabakh?”
“In September 2023, a State Department official said the United States “would not tolerate” ethnic cleansing and other atrocities in Nagorno-Karabakh. In October the European Union passed resolutions deploring the Azerbaijani attacks and impending ethnic cleansing and joined the U.S. and other states in demanding that the right of return for Armenian citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh be respected. All have been futile admonishments of Azerbaijani power.
A nine-month blockade that began in December 2022 had prevented food, medicine and other resources from reaching the besieged community, and as the Azerbaijani army encircled the remnant Armenian forces in the self-described Republic of Artsakh, no power deemed it their responsibility to protect the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. Though Azerbaijani forces never ordered an evacuation, the Armenian population, based on painful past experience, knew it would not be safe for them to remain after the surrender of the Artsakh and Armenian resistance.
“We are waiting for fuel. As soon as we can find it, we will [leave] immediately,” Arev Danielyan told an official from Caritas Armenia last September. “I have three children, and it is impossible to stay with the Azerbaijanis.” She told the official this would be the third and last time she would be displaced because of the conflict. She knew there would be no going back this time.
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“The worst thing is to take a deep breath before saying goodbye,” she said.
A sorrowful caravan of more than 100,000 Armenians in cars, vans and horse carts trailed out of the enclave. Over the course of a few days in September last year, the desperate exodus put an end to an Armenian and Christian presence in the mountainous region that had been constant for more than 2,000 years.
It was not too long ago that the global community accepted a “responsibility to protect” in international affairs, the obligation to step in to prevent crimes against humanity even if it meant intervening in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. The responsibility to protect provided the justification for NATO’s decision to interrupt the bloodletting in Kosovo in 1999. It was also the rationale used for a multinational air campaign over Libya during the fall of Qaddafi in 2011. Unfortunately, that multinational misadventure has apparently soured world powers on the idea of a responsibility to protect”.
This policy shift is an all-too-common response to Christian persecution by Western governments once defenders of Christianity and Christians abroad are sadly occupied by an anti-Christian political class and work force that are not interested in preserving Christian lives, history or values. The falling away of the West from its Christian foundations was foretold in the Bible.
We live in prophetic times and as such Christians need help especially where they have no political support, very little provisions, and no tactical ability to defend themselves.
To support our Christian brothers and sisters in Armenia please go to https://www.barnabasaid.org/ and Persecution.org
