Your Namak for Sunday, January 8
Azerbaijani blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh reaches one month mark and Los Angeles mayor calls on Biden to aid Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians.
Hi there, here’s your weekly briefing of Armenian news in English, curated, reported and fact-checked by journalists Astrig Agopian and Maral Tavitian.
Azerbaijani Blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh Reaches One Month Mark
For one month, the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh has been under a blockade imposed by the Azerbaijani government, with the Armenian Foreign Ministry warning of famine and ethnic cleansing. “The danger of malnutrition is tangible. Hundreds of families left on different sides of the Azerbaijani blockade remain separated. 120,000 people in fact became captives,” the ministry said in a statement.
On December 12, self-proclaimed Azerbaijani “eco activists” closed the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and the rest of the world. With all transport to the region halted, fresh food and basic goods have run dry, and serious humanitarian problems have emerged in the healthcare and education sectors. Due to the food shortage, this week the Nagorno-Karabakh government announced the temporary closure of all pre-schools.
Los Angeles Mayor Calls on Biden to Aid Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians
On January 3, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and City Council President Paul Krekorian issued a letter to President Joe Biden, urging the United States to provide humanitarian assistance to Nagorno-Karabakh. In the absence of American intervention, the statement said, “the world may soon be witnessing another Srebrenica or Sarajevo, and ultimately the genocidal destruction of all Armenian presence in the region.” Bass and Krekorian called on Biden to approve an airlift of aid to Nagorno-Karabakh, and insist that Russian troops in the region be replaced by international peacekeepers. Los Angeles is home to the largest population of diaspora Armenians in the country, a community that has demanded action from local lawmakers on conflict in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
Marut Vanyan: One month inside the blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh
In lieu of a profile this week, we bring you a personal essay by Nagorno-Karabakh journalist Marut Vanyan, who writes about life inside his blockaded home.
There is a strange emptiness in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, with a population of around 60,000. The yellow city transport bus rarely passes –– there is a shortage of fuel. The streets are empty. Supermarkets are empty. The city’s main market does not operate due to the scarcity of fruits and vegetables.
Families “celebrated” the New Year online, because their relatives could not join. They marked the holiday without traditional dishes. Absolutely no festive mood is felt, congratulations are not heard, which makes the city even emptier. Everyone asks the same question: “When will the road be opened?” All conversations are about the road.
A month has already passed that Nagorno-Karabakh’s only road with the outside world is closed. People’s patience is running out. As we say in Armenian, the knife cuts to the bone.
Armenians celebrate Christmas on January 6. Everyone at church on Christmas Eve had the same worried and identical face. As if everyone’s prayers are about the same thing. When will all this end?
On the morning of December 12, near the city of Shushi, self-proclaimed Azerbaijani eco activists closed the Stepanakert-Goris highway, the only road connecting Artsakh to Armenia and the world.
The situation has become increasingly complicated, and today is already one month (we are tired of counting the days) that Artsakh is under a de facto blockade. Social problems began to arise immediately after the road’s closure. On the second day of the blockade, restrictions were placed on the sale of bread in the capital: two loaves of bread for one family.
All the supermarket shelves in Stepanakert are now empty, everything is long gone. A spoonful of sugar for my coffee has become like gold, and shopkeepers sell cigarettes individually. New mothers ration baby formula and diapers. If people living in the villages still have the means to have some meat, eggs, milk and cheese, then in Stepanakert, where more than half the population of Artsakh lives, this is impossible. The merchants sold the last citrus fruit and went home.
It is a very strange feeling. Imagine you want to go from one room of your house to another, but you cannot. Not from one room to another, but rather you cannot go to the kitchen for food. Since Armenia is the “kitchen” of Artsakh, the entrance to which is closed, depriving 120,000 people of the necessary conditions for life.
Besides food, many other problems have emerged: hundreds of children are stuck at the border, unable to reunite with their families. On social media, people ask where they can get the medicine they need. A pill that used to cost a penny is impossible to find. Moms cut the tablet medicine for adults into four pieces to make it a low dose and give it to children.
No matter how much we conceal these difficulties, no matter how much we show that we are enduring, in reality the atmosphere in Nagorno-Karabakh is very stressful and grave. After all, people wanted to reunite with their children and at least be together for the New Year.
Imagine you want to go from one room of your house to another, but you cannot. Not from one room to another, but rather you cannot go to the kitchen for food. Since Armenia is the “kitchen” of Artsakh, the entrance to which is closed, depriving 120,000 people of the necessary conditions for life.
After the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in the 1990s, Armenian officials made various political statements about the Lachin highway connecting Artsakh to Armenia, highlighting its indispensability. But for an ordinary Armenian, it is only a 7-8-meter-wide road, which is of vital importance for him. And that road was simply closed.
We have seen worse days. During the previous war, we lived under extremely difficult conditions for years, and now, too, we will endure, say the Armenians of Artsakh. As long as our leaders do not make territorial concessions, as long as we do not lose Artsakh, we want to live with dignity in our home, like all people of the world.
We remember how in Soviet times, when the Stepanakert Airport was still functioning, Azerbaijani police would go around emptying the suitcases of Armenians and then order them to collect the spilled clothes. In one case, they beat a friend of mine so badly that he had his front teeth knocked out.
We remember all of these humiliations. Armenians don’t want their cars to be searched by Azerbaijanis when they go to Yerevan with their spouses and children. It is clear that if an Azerbaijani checkpoint is established in Shushi, we will receive the same treatment, people say.
So, the blockade continues. Happy New Year to everyone.
This piece was translated from Armenian by Martin Adamian.
To read: The Double Life of a French Armenian Photographer, an Aperture feature on the fascinating “Dual Nationality” self-portrait project by photographer Rebecca Topakian, who reconstructs her own layered identity through object-clues.
To listen: Armenian Pilgrimages: A Journey to the Homeland, a touching Kerning Cultures podcast about a father-daughter duo’s quest to discover their family history in modern Turkey.
To read: How Celebrating Two Christmases Led This Refugee Family to Embrace New Life in America While Continuing Their Armenian Traditions, a Food&Wine piece by Liana Aghajanian about her Iranian-Armenian family’s Christmas celebration, and the unique dishes that decorate a traditional table. Plus a recipe for Anoush Abour, a wheat berry porridge with a legacy dating to biblical times.
That’s it for today, see you next week!
Questions? Story ideas? An urge to say barev/parev? You can send us a secure email at namaknews@protonmail.com.