Dear Ambassador,
We, Armenians living in Georgia, both in different parts of the world and here, are very concerned about the latest aggression carried out by Azerbaijan against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. We are aware that the United States and in particular the Secretary of State Anthony Blinken have made great efforts to make Azerbaijan stand back and not carry out military aggression against the people of Nagorno Karabakh. However, Azerbaijan, ignoring the admonitions of the USA and at the same time listening to the advice of its ally Russia and Turkey, carried out a new bloody aggression against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Russian peacekeeping mission did not interfere in any way, justifying that it was an internal matter of Azerbaijan. And the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, expressed herself during the briefing that it should be a lesson for every country that moves to the west.
In fact, the Russian Federation, Turkey and Azerbaijan jointly planned and carried out this bloody aggression against not only the people of Nagorno Karabakh, but also independent and democratic Armenia, whose authorities are trying to conduct an independent policy in these difficult times.
Probably, the fact of the Armenian-American military exercises and Armenia’s readiness to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court angered the Russian Federation. And what happened in Nagorno Karabakh was the answer to that.
Following this idea, it can be stated once again that Azerbaijan has made its choice against democracy, protection of human rights and therefore against the international law, which today is violated by its ally Russia and which Azerbaijan seems to be joining now.
However, that is not the end either. Azerbaijan and Turkey put into circulation the idea of the so-called Zangezur Corridor and present extraterritorial demands to small and popular Armenia. They even threaten war if Armenia does not agree to it. Russia also urges Azerbaijan to follow a similar path. We think that the high-ranking officials of the United States, led by the Secretary of State, are well aware of this. Azerbaijan will become the second Russia if it tries to invade the sovereign territory of the neighboring country.
Returning to the current humanitarian disaster in Nagorno-Karabakh, I should mention that as of today, about 20,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Karabakh and moved to Armenia. It is still possible to keep 100,000 people in their homes and homeland if Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia are forced to accept international peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh through the mediation of the USA. A week later it will be too late. The USA, as a guarantor of international law and fundamental human rights, is obliged to save the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, which has lived there for thousands of years, following the example of Kosovo.
And finally, Ms. Ambassador, we want to express our deep gratitude to the USA for its humanitarian assistance during the Armenian Genocide in 1915 a hundred years ago, when the USA reached out to the Armenian people in such difficult conditions, but in this situation, we would like the USA to not to provide humanitarian aid to the people who survived the genocide in Karabakh, but to help us prevent the need for it.
Director of Samtskhe-Javakhk Media Analytical Center: Eduard Aivazyan