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There is a country in the Middle East whose other people have kept an alliance with the God of the Bible for millennia, they have faced many persecutions in their long history, yet none have been as terrible as in the 20th century, when a tough country tried to annihilate them all – the whole race – a global war. Despite this horror, they clung to survival, building their own independent state on a small swath of land, surrounded by much larger and more hostile countries that vowed to destroy them. .
What country am I from?
If it weren’t for the name of this article, it would be quite natural for an American Christian to assume that I am talking about Israel. The Jewish state is the subject of admirable advancements and devotion among American Christians, evangelicals in particular. And even beyond its evangelical supporters, Israel draws a lot of attention. Every border confrontation with your Arab enemies, every turn in the diplomatic game is considered worthy of intense media coverage, but the country I have described is in fact Armenia. Armenia was the first country in the world to convert to Christianity and is home to some of the oldest Christian sites and communities in the world. Armenians were nearly destroyed in a genocide perpetrated across the Turkish state from 1915 to 1923. More than a million were killed, according to maximum estimates, and the maximum number of survivors scattered around the world. The Republic of Armenia, despite everything, gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. And since September 27, it has been attacked by its larger neighbor, Azerbaijan, supported by its even larger ally, Turkey. Turkey is now bringing thousands of jihadists from Syria to fight Christian Armenians.
Have you heard of him?
Otherwise, don’t feel bad, it’s far from alone. The Christian media in the United States has remained largely silent on the subject.
Read the Christian Post canopy on October 2: Turkey sends ISIS commander and Syrian rebels to Azerbaijan in Armenian conflict
Azerbaijan accused of bombing Armenian cathedral and denies attacking sites
March 100000 in Los Angeles between Azerbaijan and Armenians
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Christianity Today presented its first article on the confrontation on October 6. The only American Christian voice cited in the article, the Reverend Johnnie Moore, commented coldly: “Christians do not instinctively deserve Armenia just because it is a predominantly Christian country.
An Armenian friend, who belongs to an evangelical church in the capital of Yerevan and who is actively interested in helping displaced children, wrote to me with unhappy amazement after reading Christianity Today’s article: “I don’t know what I just read,” she said. . ” I’ve never felt so alone in my life as an Armenian and as a Christian. Reading these statements of Christian prestige and influence is simply unbelievable.
Of course, there is wisdom not to take on aspects in a war just because one aspect is Christian, but there is much more to this story.
In the chaos that followed World War I, Armenia and Azerbaijan were conquered through the Soviet Union. The Soviet conquest destroyed the young Armenian republic, but also ended the Turkish invasion of the Caucasus region. The Ottoman Turkish Empire had wiped out almost all of its territory. The Armenians themselves of World War I, and the forces of the Republic of Turkey who replaced it seemed determined to end the paintings in Armenia itself, with the help of its allies in Azerbaijan. The Russians expelled the Turks and incorporated Armenia and Azerbaijan. in the Soviet Union.
When Joseph Stalin, then Soviet minister for nationalities, drew up the new borders of the region, he placed a historic Armenian region called “Upper Karabakh” within the borders of Azerbaijan, despite the expressed preference by his other parents to be part of Armenia. : It is something old and well known: By confronting the issue of other people in opposition to others, the Soviets made it less difficult for them to maintain control.
During the 70 years that Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh component, azerbaijani elite showed strong discrimination against the Armenian population. When the Soviet Union began to fall as a component in the last 1980s, a motion of protest arose in Nagorno-Karabakh. His other people wanted to be part of Armenia again. Azerbaijan’s government responded by launching a crusade of terror opposed to Armenians across the country. Bloody massacres purged Azerbaijani cities from Armenians, and Azerbaijani forces set out to destroy Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia went to war to protect them, followed six years of fighting that left 30,000 dead.
In the early 1990s, Christian human rights activists such as Dr. John Eibner and Baroness Caroline Cox of Christian Solidarity International made headlines by flying humanitarian-aided aircraft in Nagorno-Karabakh. They reported that they were sinister:
Armenians [under bombardment] had to spend most of their time taking refuge in basements and basements in appalling conditions. Without light, heat or energy, they snuggled up in the dark, at sub-zero temperatures, without running water, sanitation, good enough. As electricity was cut through the Azeri-Turks, the only water for Stepanakert’s 82,000 population came here from 8 spring wells. It took up to five hours to get in and from the wells and wait with many other people. in the glacial cold, under constant bombardment, only to fill 2 cubes. Perhaps worst of all was the lack of good enough medical supplies. At the bombed hospital, we saw seriously injured patients, such as extensive burns, bilateral amputations, eyeglasses, and bullets in the spine. Medical staff did not have enough good anesthesia or painkillers; vodka was all they could give to check and ease the pain.
At the end of the war, Nagorno-Karabakh has become an autonomous republic, protected through Armenia. Armenia has conquered a few more territories in Azerbaijan to its position, turning thousands of Azerbaijanis into refugees. A fragile ceasefire has been established. However, no peace treaty has ever been signed. Occasional clashes continued along the border. The president who ruled Azerbaijan under the Soviets created a brutal circle of relative dictatorships. Armenia has established an imperfect democracy.
On 27 September 2020, Azerbaijan broke the ceasefire and launched a wonderful attack on Nagorno-Karabakh.
Over the past decade, Azerbaijan has reaped enormous oil benefits, which it has poured into its army, preparing for this fight. Its leaders have made a decision that now, with the United States distracted by its choice and the world distracted by the coronavirus, the time has come to retake Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan’s long-time ally, Turkey, is helping. For years, Turkey has tried to expand its strength in the Middle East. Today, he is concerned about the wars in Syria, Iraq and Libya, and shakes his sword opposing Greece. Armenia to the list. Turkey is even linking conflicts, leading the jihadists who fought with Turkey’s help in Syria to combat Armenian Christians.
As for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, grandchildren of genocide survivors and themselves survivors of ethnic cleansing, they see their oldest enemies attacking them ferociously, overcrowded, overwhelmed, they are sure that the specter that has haunted them throughout their lives has disappeared. yet came: genocide, again.
Of course, Armenians are our brothers and sisters in Christ; are attacked by hostile powers. They didn’t break the peace. Their cause is just: they are not seeking to take anyone’s land; they’re just looking to feel overwhelmed.
So why is the American church so quiet?Azerbaijan receives help from the États-Unis. La Turkey is a key best friend of the United States, a NATO member. If our government cared, it could do much to prevent this crisis, which is approaching genocide every day.
When Armenians faced genocide in the 1910s and 1920s, American missionaries paved the way for fact-smuggling about murders outside Turkey, and American Christians raised millions of dollars in aid budget for genocide orphans. Both chaos at home and abroad, it turns out that Armenians are suffering to make their voices heard, including us, their own brothers and sisters.
The Lord is on his throne and is, as always, the most productive defender of his church. He meets each of his young men in Armenia by call and he will protect them perfectly. If I’m true to who I am as a Christian, I don’t care about them.
What worries me is us. We are called to be one body, to rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15), to suffer with those who suffer (I Corinthians 12:26), to satisfy the desires of the other members of the body, (II Corinthians 8:14), to make everyone intelligent, “especially those who are of the space of faith” (Galatians 6:10). I am committed that we, the citizens of the richest, freer and toughest country in the history of the world, will say the day when the Lord will hold us accountable. The day he asks us, as he first asked so long ago, “Where’s your brother?”
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Joel Veldkamp is the head of foreign communications at Christian Solidarity International, earned his master’s degree in Middle East studies from the University of Chicago and is recently completing a doctoral thesis on the history of Christians in Aleppo, Syria, at the Graduate Institute in Geneva. , Switzerland. He has lived in Armenia and Syria and has traveled the Middle East to paint and study. Visit csi-usa. org.
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