Journal of Political Sciences & Public Affairs
Open Access

EleonoraZakharian^{* *}Correspondence: EleonoraZakharian, PhD. Associate Professor. College of Medicine, Cancer Biology and Pharmacology. Cancer Biology, USA, Tel: 7325709406, Email:

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Introduction

Nowadays, in the era of the internet and the momentary spread of information, not only governments of all countries are well aware – all the people around the World know what is happening in Armenia. Perhaps, some do not entirely understand or again pretend to demonstrate their lack of understanding. A very convenient political platform, by the way: then you read in the news something like “the war sparked between Armenia and Azerbaijan”. How can all of a sudden, a war would begin?

The first rule of the war – that there is an aggressor that starts it first. In other words, there should be the offense and defense sides. The Armenians of Artsakh (Karabakh) protect their historic land since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and their rightful decision for self- determination. In contrast, the Azeris present the situation to the World that this land belongs to them, which, in fact, was given them illegally by Bolsheviks in 1921. Thus, even for a not sufficiently educated person, it is obvious who could start a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In some historical oppositions between the countries, when the opponent is brave, straightforward, and honest, a war can start with an announcement or declaration for such an action. But it was never the case for the devious and dishonest Turks and their akin nation, Azeris.

Now, it has been over three weeks, as Armenia stands alone in the Great War against the Islamic expansion of Turks and Azeris, against the terrorism, and Syrian mercenaries conscripted by Turkey to fight Armenians. And what the World is doing now?

As usual, Europe pathetically screams for supporting human rights, for gender equality, for gay marriage/rights, freedom, and democracy. The EU meets to discuss Navalny’s issues – this is so important for them, such a radical question of great significance. As a result of this “urgent importance”, the EU so easily makes a decision to sanction Russia over Navalny poisoning. One person’s question, but because it is against Russia, makes it an easy-justifiable solution to sanction a country.

On the other hand, Armenians have been bombarded, including the civilians, for weeks now. Many women and men, children, elderly people have been killed and wounded, over 75,000 Armenians have been displaced from their homes. Yet, the EU cannot decide whether they need to make any resolutions and sanctions against Turkey and Azerbaijan. This situation cannot even be described as double standards. The best description of this situation is that we, Armenians, are being left alone to fight the terroristic attacks of ISIS backed by Azerbaijan and Turkey.

It is a simple ignorance against humanity, as they do nothing when civilians – women, children, elderly people, and men are bombarded in Stepanakert, in the 21^st century…

Among Europeans leaders, only the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, stood as a faithful supporter of humanity and accused Azerbaijan and Turkey of their exuberant aggression against Armenians.

What about the United States? Like always, the US is silent, covering up their NATO’s ally, while the US lobbyists being bribed by Turks and Azeris. President Trump has a conflict of interest, a business interest in Turkey, which explains his bias and sympathy for the dictator Erdogan – Erdogan, who praises Hitler’s ruling and traditions!

What a shame for the US, what a shame for the president who supports the extremist ambitions of this Monster!!!

While numerous regions of Artsakh (Karabakh) and Armenia have been bombarded nonstop since the beginning of this conflict, with thousands of civilians and militaries killed, the largest TV news stations hardly covering any of this crime and violations. However, when an explosion of an unknown origin is incinerated by Azeris in Ganja, right away, this fabricated information is being reported by Fox News and BBC, blaming Armenia in bombing civilians. Well, enough is enough. It is time to stop the double standards! Armenians never attack civilians, and even the wounded Azeris soldiers, captured after another clash, have been taken to the hospitals and treated. Some even received surgeries and now recovering in the hospitals in Armenia. Do Azeris show similar humanity? Oh no, they are not even removing their own wounded soldiers from the field after the fight is over, not even mentioning the corpse of their soldiers, who are left and being eaten by scavengers. What is even worse is that the cruel and terroristic methods of ISIS are continuously used, such as the beheading of Armenian soldiers and other war crimes. This should be alarming to the World.

ANOTHER IMPORTANT COUNTRY ON THE ARENA IS RUSSIA. NOW, WHAT ABOUT THEM?

Well, Russian media has been playing its own game because Azerbaijan continuously bribes many of their lobbyists. Thus, as a result, several politicians express their uneasiness or disappointment with Armenia and, perhaps, expecting the prime-minister, Pashinyan, to kneel begging for help. Some Russian politicians got so used to it with the previous Armenian rulers, who choked our nation in corruption and humiliation, and sold our country national resources piece by piece…

Frequently, Russian news-makers or politicians pretend they are unaware who has started the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, who violates the ceasefire. Why would they lie? It is because they do not like that Armenia decided to turn down the corrupted rulers who were convenient poppets in the hands of their dominating neighbor. Indeed, the Armenians peacefully transferred to democracy, away from the corruptive dictatorship of Serge Sarkisyan. Some news- makers and politicians keep calling Pashinyan pro-American, and compare the Armenian Velvet Revolution with the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. However, despite all these accusations, there is a huge difference – Armenians made their decision and movement toward the change for independence themselves, without any third-party involvement. They were so fed up by the previous rulers, who robbed their country and left it with no national resources, that nothing could stop them from changing the system.

Yet, numerous reports, press-releases, and talk-shows are being reported by Russian media, and many of them are heavily consumed by the Azerbaijanian “investments”, to show Armenia in a dishonest and misleading way. Some video reports, for instance, while discussing ongoing military actions between the two countries, say something like “it is their own fault”. However, what exactly is the Armenian fault? Is our fault that in 301 year of AC we have chosen Christ, became Christians, and had to withstand the Islamic aggression all our life? Or our fault that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we decided to acquire independence? Some comments that were posted, please note the importance, on the Central Russian TV, Channel 1, included an expression that “they both (Armenia and Azerbaijan) wanted to separate from the Soviet Union, now let them eat this …”. Are you seriously have the guts posting these compromising statements on the Central Russian TV channel? One at least has to have some elementary knowledge of history.

Have they forgotten who did break the Soviet Union in the first place? That was the very loved by the West, last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, who was given a Noble Prize in “Peace” (please note the meaning of the word “Peace” in this context) for breaking the Union apart. In fact, a person who has so much blood on his conscience, receiving a Noble Prize in Peace, is very typical of our society with “high humanity standards”… And after the country started its disintegration process, who did abandon the “sinking ship” among the first republics? It was Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Thus, the comment about other republics leaving the USSR does not make any sense. Can one imagine the United States comprised of only a few states like Alaska, Florida, and New Mexico, and anything in the middle would be something else? This is just nonsense. Thus, before accusing Armenia, look back and be truthful about your own mistakes…

There is hope, however, that the official government of the Russian Federation sees this situation differently. Perhaps, they are even concerned by the invasion of Azerbaijanis lobbyists into Russian media. They must know that the Armenians have always been loyal to Russians and have shared their common cultural, religious, and historical values and interests for ages. One bright historical example is the participation of the Armenians in the Great War against NAZIs. Brave actions of great Armenian warriors made a significant impact along the successful resistance to German occupation and eventual victory of the Soviet Union, 1940-1945. Besides thousands of soldiers, Armenians gave the Soviet Army 148 generals, including 8 general-colonels, 31 general- lieutenants, and 107 general-majors, 4 martials, 10 admirals, including vice-admirals and counter- admirals. Among the 500,000 Armenians participating in World War II, half did not return.

BUT WHO ARE THEY – WHO ARE THESE ARMENIANS?

Armenians are an ancient nation that lived on the Armenian Highlands from the beginning of times of our civilization. The Armenian nation is often referred to as the “cradle of civilization”. These people have left thousands of ancient artifacts showing their cultural heritage in the region, among which are the oldest shoe ¹, the first winery, and the earliest rock and iron tools ².

Some of the ancient settlements of the Armenian Highland include an ancient capital of Armenia – Dvin. This city is traced back as far as the 3^rd millennium BC. An iron age kingdom, Urartu, developed from the 13^th to the 9^th century BC. The name Urartu originated from the Biblical mountain Ararat, and the empire existed until 650 BC. However, the Urartu fortress of Erebuni still stands, and 3000 years later, it is the capital of Armenia, the city Yerevan (Erevan).

The variety of ancient artifacts from the Armenian Highlands is truly astonishing. Many agricultural and cattle-breeding artifacts indicate the first agricultural and stock-raising settlements established in the territory of the present-day Shirak, the Province of Armenia, several thousand years ago. Furthermore, archaeological excavations in different regions of Armenia demonstrated that ancient Armenians mastered numerous crafts thousands and thousands of years ago. As an example, in the 5th-4th millennia BC, ancient people were able to smelt copper. In the 2nd millennium BC, they would develop iron-smelting techniques. During the excavations in the Areni Cave in 2008, archaeologists found the oldest known shoe with 5,500 years of age, which represents typical footwear of ancient Armenians ¹.

Strikingly, the maternal genome sequencing, derived from the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), of ancient remnants excavated on the territory of Armenia and Artsakh (Karabakh) has not significantly changed for almost eight millennia ³. Many other studies ^4-6 also support the genetic continuity of Armenians, and often scholars refer to Armenians as to “Living Fossil”.

NOW, LET US REFLECT ON THE HISTORY OF TURKS. WHERE DID THEY COME FROM, AND HOW DID THEY END UP OCCUPYING ASIA MINOR?

Generally speaking, Turks are nomads, always have been, and always will remain.

After the great conquests of Alexander the Great, Asia Minor was mostly Hellenized and remained Greek until the XI century, with Armenians forming the majority in the eastern parts of the region, where they lived since antiquity.

Turks that were streaming to Asia Minor were representatives of numerous tribes from the regions of Altai and western Mongolia. Thus, Turkish predecessors were comprised of nomadic tribes of the Oghuz and Mongolian origin. As the number of migrating tribes to Asia Minor grew, Turks started conquering many local states and their beautiful and fertile lands, including Greece, Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Balkans, and others. Being comprised of typical nomadic tribes that did not have essential cultural heritage, Turks began to adopt the traditions and lifestyle of the native people living in the region. With time, they inherited their food, music, dressing style. Throughout history, Turks also actively mixed with the natives, which eventually led to the significant dissipation of their ancestral genome. According to the latest genomic studies, the Turkish genome is predominantly composed of the acquired Middle Eastern and European genetic background, and only shows some degree of similarity with their South Asian and Central Asian or Mongolian predecessors 7. Furthermore, Turkish ancestors were historically divergent from the ancestors of the Caucasians and Iranians 8.

BUT WHO ARE AZERBAIJANIS, OR AZERIS?

Azerbaijanis are representatives of an artificial nation formed in the artificial country that was created by Bolsheviks under the ruling of Lenin. Lenin had a dream to create a Communistic Union with Turks, which would allow spreading the dictatorship of the Communistic Party far to the South. Devious Turks demonstrated their interest in establishing such a union and unofficially agreed. However, their ambitions were far-fetched, as they requested in return most of Western Armenia, a considerable amount of gold, weapons, and creation of another republic specifically dedicated to Turkish-speaking minorities of the region. One only can wonder how easy those days it was to erase a history of an entire nation and create something that never existed before… However, for Bolsheviks, it was very common to disregard history, culture, and even beliefs. They were ruining everything that stood on their path. Thus, Lenin agreed with Turkish conditions and in 1918 initiated a formation of a country named Azerbaijan, which was comprised of all the minorities living there at the moment. Many of them were Armenians.

Turks, in their turn, never were intended to join Lenin. They played their game fooling Bolsheviks, took their gifts, and never joined the Communistic USSR. This arrangement, in turn, was a huge loss for Armenians. At that time, they lost not only half of their country but also the symbol of Armenia, their sanctuary obelisk – the mountain Ararat. A biblical sanctuary, the mountain Ararat, the place where Noah’s ark had settled.

Another dramatic and distortive actions against Armenians were exercised by the following Bolshevik dictator, Joseph Stalin. In 1921, Stalin took away from Armenia four large regions, including Nakhichevan from the West and Artsakh (Karabakh) from the East of Armenia, and gave them to Azerbaijan; while Javahk and Ahalhalak regions in the North of Armenia gave to Georgia. An evil joke of a dictator to demonstrate his unleashed powers over the people… What were the consequences of these rearrangements? During the Soviet years, Azerbaijan forced all Armenians to leave Nakhichevan; many were exterminated. At the same time, Azeris have been erasing the traces of ancient Armenians of Nakhichevan and their artifacts up until now. They even have been knocking to the ground the ancient Armenian cemeteries with common only to Armenians crosses carved in rocks (Hach-Qars, or Cross-Stones). Similar tactics had been conducted against the people of Artsakh (Karabakh). However, the Armenians in this ancient Armenian land have survived and finally claimed their independence during the dissipation of the Soviet Ruling. Indeed, at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan left the union, but the pro- Armenian Karabakh requested to rejoin their country of origin and of their nation that it was forcefully removed from, their Armenia.

At this historic moment, once again, Armenians faced double standards from “highly- humanistic” global society. The breaking of the Soviet Union was received by the World as music to their ears. The Victorious Triumph of the West over their long-term cold-war opponent was finally achieved. The separation of falling off the Soviet State republics was noted as the movement to democracy and independence. The people of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomic Republic were excited: finally, their hopes and prayers for change were heard, and light of liberation flashed on their horizon. Now was the moment they thought they could leave the past forceful placement and liberate from Azeris jurisdiction. Though they were unaware that, while the World supports a liberation of all other republics, it was not intended to be the same for all, and Armenians once again stood alone with their disappointment, evidencing the World injustice. However, leaving the Armenians with just a disappointment was insufficient; the consequence of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh movement to independence involved horrifying, bloody outcomes…

How did Azerbaijan react to this decision of Nagorno-Karabakh autonomic republic? They responded to it in a very typical Turkish tradition. Azeris initiated an ethnic cleansing of Armenians that lived on the territory of Azerbaijan. First killings started in the city Sumgait. On February 27th of 1988, Azeris formed in groups attacked the Armenian families. They were killing, stabbing, burning Armenians right on the streets, breaking into their apartments, and crashing all on their way. Pregnant women and babies were molested. Little girls and young ladies were raped in front of their parents, who would suffer dramatically, evidencing the crime against their child and not being able to help them. After these ugliest acts, all participants were stabbed, or soaked with gasoline and set on fire. Christian crosses were burned on the victims’ backs, as a reminder that they are being abused for their Christian faith.

The militia was well-aware of the consolidated extermination of Armenians, and observed the rage without interfering. Note that it was still happening under the jurisdiction of the Soviet Union. So, what was done by the General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev, ruling at that time? The answer is more disgusting than one can even imagine. Gorbachev, aware of the planned massacres of Armenians, withheld the Soviet troops from entering the region and allowed the ongoing riots for a whole week, while troops had been waiting for his order right at the border of Sumgait. Yes, that was the most pathetic Winner of the Noble Prize for Peace. Therefore, it is not surprising that after Sumgait, the ethnic cleansing of Armenians continued in Kirovobad (today’s Ganja). Kirovobad was the second largest city of Azerbaijan from where all the Armenians were expelled. The next actions ignited in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku. From January 12th of 1990, the devastating massacres of Armenians broke in Baku. Groups of Azeris were well prepared: they had the lists of Armenian apartments, and were breaking in, stabbing, raping, or setting on fire anyone of Armenian origin. The closest friend of my family described how he attempted to save his mother. The ankle K. ran upstairs of the five-story building, where his mom lived on the top floor. When he reached the door, their Azerbaijanis neighbor from the apartment across, opened his door and asked the ankle to quickly hide inside of this neighbor’s apartment; that men only mumbled quietly: “It is too late”. When vandals left and ankle K. could step outside, he witnessed the worst scene – his mom was thrown off the balcony of that fifth floor, and her body covered in blood was lying on the ground… I can go on with these stories. At the age of 15, I was there living with my grandma. Fortunately for us, my grandma and I escaped from Azerbaijan before it was“too late” …

These horrifying, terroristic acts have not been ceased historically during the Armenian Genocide in 1915-1920, the Sumgait and Kirovabad killings in 1988, or Baku massacres in 1990, as well as numerous Azerbaijanis invasions and shelling since the 90th, and they are not being stopped now in the 21st century.

CONCLUSION

Nowadays, one can often hear from the news reports that Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan, but how is that? Is this because the UN has it in writing? But what about the declaration on “Implementation of the Helsinki Accords: Human Rights and Democratization in the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union” (Washington, DC: US Congress, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, January 1993), p. 116. Thus, all former USSR republics could establish independence, but the Autonomic republics could not? So, it was acceptable to declare that the Soviet State was a fraud that forced the other independent states to unite them, but the factual illegitimate reinforcement to unite Artsakh with Azerbaijan wan not?

It should be fairly accepted now by the entire World that Artsakh was illegally and forcefully removed from Armenia by the despot and dictator Stalin. Importantly, on December 10th of 1991, the people of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) conducted a referendum, where 99.98 % voted to separate from Azerbaijan and rejoin Armenia. Was the desire of 99.98% of the people of Artsakh (Karabakh) heard? Of course not. Interesting historic analogies show that when the people of Crimea performed a referendum, it was legalized, and the region rejoined Russia, from which it was earlier removed by Khrushchev, as a gift to Ukraine. Not much has been disputed for Crimea: despite the Ukrainian unwillingness, it was the decision of the people, and it is done. Alternatively, when an independence referendum was conducted in the Autonomous Province of Kosovo, it was accepted and declared the Republic of Kosovo a sovereign state in 1991. However, for the Armenians to make their will official, they have to go through the bloody clashes year after year, and yet the resolution for a simple will of the nation, the will of self-determination, has not been reached.

This article reflects on so much hardship of my Nation, so much terror and injustice the Armenians have been facing throughout the pre-historic times up until now. Nevertheless, in summary, I want to end it on an optimistic note. We – Armenians – have always survived, we always made it through, and we will make it to the Victory this time again.

Although, we are mainly left to ourselves, but we are not alone! Today Armenians from all over the world have been united. We have only one goal to Survive and Live as One Nation like we always did.

We have lived on this planet for thousands of years, and no one can break us!

Because We Are descendants of God, and We Are people of God! The first two letters in the name of our country AR mean God. Armen – means Men of AR, or men of God. Thus, the Armenians are the People of AR, or the People of God!

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