A humanitarian catastrophe is raging in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Although it sounds crazy today, it remains a fact. Countries that should be civilized are actually doing nothing to save the 120,000 people left without food, medicine and other essentials. Here is what correspondents of the German newspaper Die Zeit write about it.
Nagorno-Karabakh: forgotten by the world
For the past month, Azerbaijan has been starving the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. There is a lack of everything - food, gasoline, medicines. About the coming catastrophe
Alisa Botha and Maria Mitrov
Updated August 10, 2023
Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh again and again demonstrate against the blockade - here on July 29th. The presented images belong to the photographer Ani Balayan, who lives in Stepanakert. © Ani Balayan
What do you call it when the region is cut off from the world, when the medicines no longer pass, and the sick can go to the clinics on foot, because there are no more ambulances and almost no cars without the necessary gasoline? When supermarket shelves are empty, when people queue for hours for bread early in the morning and still don't get it? When do miscarriages skyrocket because pregnant women are no longer cared for? When dogs and cats roam the streets because their owners don't eat enough and abandon the animals? Nina, 23, a primary school teacher from Nagorno-Karabakh, puts it this way: “We are witnessing a slow genocide.”
This is exactly what Armenians go through in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been a point of contention between Azerbaijan and Armenia for decades. Anyone who listened to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his sworn enemy, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, in one of their rare joint speeches, would hardly be able to get out of the heap of centuries of historical dogmatism. In 1991, the enclave, now almost entirely Armenian, declared itself the independent Republic of Artsakh, but is not internationally recognized; under international law, the territory belongs to Azerbaijan. At the same time, the fears of the Armenians living there seem to be confirmed: the whole world now sees what a catastrophe it will be if they are built into Azerbaijan.
At the market © Ani Balayan
Whoever you talk to these days in Nagorno-Karabakh, be it primary school teacher Nina, teacher Zaruhi Grigoryan, pediatrician Kristine Aghajanyan or Gegham Stepanyan, Commissioner for Human Rights in Nagorno-Karabakh, you always hear the frightening words of the 20th century: genocide, ethnic purge, genocide. This is how the victims describe not only their hunger, their catastrophic supply situation. They connect their suffering with the historical experience of 1915, when the Ottoman Empire, with the help of the Germans, destroyed up to one and a half million Armenians.
One marvels at the power of these words chosen by young Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh. Feel the contradiction that arises in trying to raise the current misfortune to this historical level. And one more thing: the Azerbaijani dictator Aliyev is threatening the "separatists" that they either have to live under the Azerbaijani flag, or they must leave. For a month he has been starving up to 120,000 Armenians in the enclave. When Armenians fear history repeating itself, they speak loudly about their cause. But it also expresses a genuine fear of what life under Azerbaijani dictatorship will mean for them.
The blockade began in December, initially disguised as a protest by ostensibly Azerbaijani environmental activists: the area now under Azerbaijani control can only be reached via one road from Armenia, the Lachin corridor. Azerbaijanis blocked it. They then set up a checkpoint; eventually, supplies for Russian troops and humanitarian aid from the International Red Cross were allowed, as was transport for patients. But it's been a month already. Nagorno-Karabakh is largely cut off from the world. The descriptions in this article are based on interviews with trapped people. Their information cannot be verified, but is consistent with what humanitarian organizations have recently reported on the situation on the ground.
Pediatrician Kristine Aghajanyan from Stepanakert, mother of two:
“I keep counting: how much food do we have left? How many are enough? My sister has four children, she no longer knows what to cook for them. then stand in line for hours early in the morning for bread. Someone has nothing left. On the Internet, you make barter offers: offer salt, look for oil. Money is worth next to nothing."
Ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan:
“Azerbaijanis use hunger as a weapon to achieve their political goals. The people of Nagorno-Karabakh are forcibly submitted. Azerbaijan wants to conquer this region – without the Armenian population in it.”
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