On Sept. 27, 2020, Azerbaijani forces began bombarding and invading the Nagorno-Karabakh territory, a mountainous, Armenian territory situated in the Lesser Caucasus. Armenia and Azerbaijan, both located between the Eurasian nations of Turkey, Russia, and Iran, have a long history of conflict and have seen heightened tensions that led to a full-scale war last fall.
The Nagorno-Karabakh territory is a historically Armenian-inhabited area that was turned over to Bolshevik-Azerbaijani governance during the early Soviet period, despite over 90 percent of the region’s population being Armenian. Armenian citizens are 97.9 percent Christian, with adherents of the Armenian Apostolic or Orthodox Church consisting of the vast majority of that group, while 96 percent of Azerbaijani citizens are Muslim. Religion, as well as ethnicity, are often cited as large sources of rivalry and distrust between the two countries.
After many years of tension during the 20th-century, Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev introduced reforms to expand liberties and democracy for the USSR in 1986, which led many Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians to call and demonstrate for full integration with then-Soviet Armenia. In response to this, then-Soviet Azerbaijan instituted various anti-Armenian pogroms in its controlled land, which entailed brutal murders, assaults, and expulsions of many ethnic Armenians lasting from 1988 until 1990.
After violence had continued escalating in the Nagorno-Karabakh region during this period and afterward, in 1992, after both Azerbaijan and Armenia had left the Soviet Union, full-scale war broke out between the two powers. A Russian-brokered, tentative peace would be reached in May 1994, leaving Nagorno-Karabakh controlled by Armenia, about 30,000 soldiers and civilians killed on both sides, and hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis displaced in the region.
Until that day in September 2020, with the exception of a minor, four-day conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2016, the territory had not suffered large-scale conflict since the 1990s. Nearly all of the fighting took place in the Nagorno-Karabakh territory, with Turkish military personnel and weaponry assisting the Azerbaijan forces in taking and occupying the region.
On Nov. 9, 2020, Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to a ceasefire negotiated with the Russian Federation, but only after six-weeks of intense warfare that saw Azerbaijan capture significant portions of territories in the region. During that time, over 5,000 Azerbaijani and Armenian soldiers perished, at least 143 civilians of both nationalities have died, and more than 130,000 civilians on both sides have been displaced.
With this tentative peace deal, Azerbaijan has gained control of the vast majority of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, with Russian peacekeepers, for the time being, backing the Armenian government in the central portion of the territory. Important religious and culturally significant Armenian landmarks are now under the control of Azerbaijan, including the Armenian Apostolic Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shusha, which experienced shelling and alleged vandalism since the 2020 conflict started.
“It’s more of a recent [cathedral], but it’s become a big symbol for the region as a whole in terms of religion just because it is the region’s cathedral,” Raffi Toghramadjian, an ethnic-Armenian American and CSOM ‘21, said referring to the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral. “As for these monasteries, now that they’re being brought back in the public attention, you feel the most connected to things when they’re at risk of being taken away; so I think that might help people feel a greater call to go visit or help rebuild them.”
Despite increased tensions and uncertainty from civil authorities regarding the prospect of many Armenians not being able to return to their homes in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, a reliance on God is bringing about interior peace and freedom.
“During the Soviet era, the Soviet government imposed atheism on everyone and a lot of Armenians, even if they still identified themselves as Christian or believed in Christian doctrines, they weren’t really all too active… So I think during the [2020] war there was some element of turning back towards the Apostolic Church for support and comfort,” Toghramadjian said. “You can see really cool videos of soldiers right before they’re going to battle being baptized by priests. I think the priests were pretty active in supporting the soldiers and being there with them… It could help going forward if people feel a greater call to be connected with the Apostolic Church and Armenian identity.”
Pope Francis prayed for peace in the Nagorno-Karabakh region on Sept. 27, 2020, during his Sunday Angelus prayer and, with the war still raging, did so again on Oct. 11, 2020 and Nov. 1, 2020. During his “Urbi et Orbi” address on Christmas Day, the pope asked Christ for a tentative peace agreement in the territory.
“May the Son of the Most High sustain the commitment of the international community and the countries involved to continue the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as in the eastern regions of Ukraine, and to foster dialogue as the sole path to peace and reconciliation,” Pope Francis said.
On Dec. 8, 2020, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Catholicos Karekin II, the leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, addressed the war-weary nation and its former inhabitants now living abroad.
“These are hard days of pain, distress, and anxiety we are living through, after confronting the horrors of war. We have suffered the martyrdom of thousands of our heroic children; endured the loss of a significant part of the historical realm of Artsakh; and witnessed the greatest of external threats to our existence,” Catholicos Karekin II said. “The conviction shared by all is that this destructive situation must be resolved in an exclusively constitutional way, under conditions of national solidarity and common sense… We now call on Armenia’s National Assembly to act responsibly at this critical juncture for our homeland: to listen to the calls of the general public; to elect a new Prime Minister in consultation with the political parties; and to form an interim government of national unity.”
There are multiple ways to help bring about a just and peaceful solution in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, according to Toghramadjian.
“Obviously prayer is one of the most important things that we can all do. There are various charities that are helping out. I think the International Red Cross is doing a lot of good work in helping the civilians get back to normal and receive medical treatment,” Toghramadjian said. “The other important thing that people need to do, especially in the U.S., is to contact their representatives to make sure our elected officials know about this issue and people want the U.S. to move forward in helping create a just solution for everyone.”
Toghramadjian is skeptical about a permanent and peaceable resolution to the dispute in the near future.
“The ultimate solution has to be something between the two governments… If nothing changes, I think there will be another war in the future, because both sides are not satisfied right now. Definitely, there needs to be some sort of diplomatic solution. I’m not too hopeful that will happen, basically the two sides seem too far apart,” Toghramadjian said. “Maybe if Russia, the United States, France, and Turkey got together and put intense pressure on the two sides to come to an agreement, there might be something. But right now it seems there’s not much real diplomacy between Armenia and Azerbaijan… There’s a worry that maybe in five years, Azerbaijan will ask the Russians to leave and then there will be, maybe not a full war, but more violence along the border.”
In Georgia, a country in the Caucasus mountain region, communities of ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis live close together and have strong economic and social ties, which Toghramadjian sees as an impressive example for peaceful and mutually beneficial living between the nations at a larger level. Toghramadjian also understands and appreciates the theological values that can bring Muslims and Christians together throughout the world.
“The Muslims appreciate the concept of the Christians as fellow people of the Book and that they’re to be treated with some respect at least. And obviously, Christians are really focused on not being violent against anyone, especially not persecuting people religiously,” Toghramadjian said. “There have been accounts of some pretty horrible atrocities that have come out of the [2020] war in all these videos and pictures more so from the Azeri side, but also I’ve seen a couple of Armenian soldiers doing that. There’s room for greater respect on a personal level that needs to come from some sort of religious, ethical basis.”
On Jan. 11, 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders in Moscow to further discuss the details of the peace agreement reached in November and find ways to develop economic and communal harmony in the region.
The featured image is courtesy of Unsplash.
Max Montana is a senior studying philosophy and theology. When not writing for The Torch, he enjoys reading more about the Catholic faith and philosophy, serving the unborn and mothers in need, and hanging out with friends. Max is honored to hail from the state with many gators and the bishop of the moon: Florida.
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