Nagorno-Karabakh brings back painful memories of 1915 for Armenians globally: Avedis Hadjian

An Armenian child refugee from Nagorno-Karabakh. Photo: Araz Hadjian

The long-running conflict between Azerbaijan and the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus region ended on September 20, 2023, with Azerbaijani forces overrunning the enclave after a 10-month-long blockade, followed by a massive aerial and artillery campaign.

The enclave, which had an Armenian majority and an Azeri minority is now mostly devoid of its Armenians, who have moved across the border to Armenia.

The conflict, which has claimed thousands of lives since its start at the time of the breakup of the erstwhile Soviet Union, has now led to a humanitarian crisis with refugees streaming into Armenia.

Down To Earth spoke to Avdeis Hadjian, the author of Secret Nation: The Hidden Armenians of Turkey. Hadjian, who is based in Venice, Italy, talked about the cultural significance of Nagorno-Karabakh in Armenian history and the current crisis. Edited excerpts: 

Rajat Ghai (RG): What is the situation like regarding the ethnic Armenians who have streamed from Nagorno-Karabakh into Armenia? What do your sources on the ground tell you? 

Avedis Hadjian (AH): The vast majority of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians—there were an estimated 120,000 after the 2020 war—have now moved to Armenia because they know from past experience and history that it is impossible for Armenians to live under Azerbaijani rule.  

According to my sources and dispatches coming from the area, the refugees have been welcomed by their brethren and most are now at least temporarily resettled in different cities, towns, and villages in Armenia.

Araz Hadjian, my sister who is a photojournalist, is now in the area. She says the influx was managed smoothly and that the refugees were facing the situation with great dignity and were restrained in their displays of emotion.

According to her, it was particularly poignant to see the refugees not desperate to get hold of aid items and food provided by the government, despite being hardened by years of suffering and aggression.

The authorities are allocating financial support and housing to the refugees. Many non-profits and volunteers have come to their succour. The children, in particular, have stood out for their good behaviour and high spirits amid the despair.  

RG: Where is the area known as Nagorno-Karabakh placed in the collective consciousness and memory of Armenians, one of the world’s oldest nations? Where, in the long history of Armenia, does it find mention(s)? 

AH: Nagorno-Karabakh occupies a central place in the long history of Armenia. Some of the most notable personalities of the 20th century have their origins there.

They include Marshal Ivan Baghramyan, one of the most brilliant commanders of the Soviet forces during World War II, who was born in the Armenian city of Gandzak (now occupied by Azerbaijan, which calls it “Ganja”) right across the border from Nagorno-Karabakh to a family from the enclave.

It can also be argued that the earliest roots of the modern Armenian liberation struggle are in Karabakh, which used to be a union of Armenian principalities run by meliks or princes.

In 1677, a decision was reached during a secret meeting at the Holy See of the Armenian Church in Echmiadzin. It was decided that Armenians could no longer live under the Ottoman Turkish yoke.

Following this meeting, a Karabakh nobleman, Israel Ory, became the first Armenian leader to seek support from the Christian West and Russia for the cause of Armenia’s liberation from the oppression of Turks and their kin, the Tatars, who later were to become the people that call themselves Azerbaijanis.

Nagorno-Karabakh is also the site of some of the most precious gems of Armenian architecture, including the monasteries of Dadidank, Gandzasar, and Amaras, where in the fifth century Mesrop Mashtots, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet, set up the first school for the teaching of Armenian.

It is worth noting that many of these cultural monuments that attest to the historical presence of Armenians in Karabakh predate the arrival of Turks, Tatars, and other peoples, by several centuries. 

Hadjian interviewing Levon Ter Petrossian, the first president of the Republic of Armenia after its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. 

RG: Several commentators have said the plight of ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh qualifies as ethnic cleansing under international law? Do you agree?  

AH: Indeed, experts have agreed that the flight of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh is an instance of ethnic cleansing.

After being starved during a complete blockade for 10 months, a tiny enclave that is slightly bigger than Goa and with a population of just 120,000 people was bombed in a massive artillery and aerial campaign.

In a report issued last week, Genocide Watch said “the world is standing by as another Armenian genocide and forced deportation unfolds”. Only a few days before, the Lemkin Institute (named after Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term ‘genocide’) had warned that according to evidence gathered by its experts “the crime of genocide may already be taking place in the form of the blockade.”

And in a landmark expert opinion, Luis Moreno Ocampo, former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court had vigorously denounced the genocidal nature of the extermination campaign pursued by the Azerbaijani dictatorship of Ilham Aliyev, calling the murder of Armenians by starvation a “silent genocide.” 

AH: It does. Most Armenians in the world are grandchildren and great grandchildren of survivors of the 1915 Genocide and they are seeing the same history playing out again: Turkey and Azerbaijan taking turns to murder and expel Armenians from areas where they have lived for millennia.

For instance, one of the streets in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, has been renamed after Enver Pasha, one of the chief architects of the 1915 Genocide and perhaps the most virulently anti-Armenian Ottoman official of the time.

AH: Most Armenians would wish them to stay with their brethren of the Republic of Armenia, where many Nagorno-Karabakh have plenty of relatives. Armenians are like a big family and we will go to any lengths to help each other out in times of need and persecution.

While it is too early too tell, it is also likely that some of these Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians may move to Russia or elsewhere in the former Soviet space, as many have relatives there too, as is often the case with economic migrants from the former Soviet republics. Ideally, however, it would be best if they stayed in Armenia as their input is much needed in the republic.