Students express support for Armenia after Nagorno-Karabakh attacks
Armenian Americans have been showing their support by conducting protests and attaching Armenian flags to their cars.
November 2, 2020
Over this past month, protests have been sweeping Los Angeles in light of what’s been going on in Armenia. Fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan has ignited again over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Many relate this ongoing conflict to the Armenian genocide by Turkey in 1915, especially the Armenians living in Glendale, the second largest Armenian population in the world.
“Everything that’s happening and the world being so calm about it is due to the fact that no initiative has been taken to acknowledge the first genocide,” said Jackie Tatulyan, an alumna of Daniel Pearl Magnet High School, who graduated from UCLA with a degree in political science. “With this war, it’s the same perpetrator who is trying to do the same thing as before, just through a different nation.”
Although you may have never heard of Nagorno-Karabakh, it is now a deadly warzone where hundreds of people are dying every day. There has always been conflict and fighting in Karabakh’s borders but things have simmered down in the past couple of years until most recently when the conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan were reignited.
According to British news source Independent,Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as Azerbaijan but it is being claimed and governed by ethnic Armenians. Most recently, these two former Soviet territories have accused each other of launching unprecedented attacks on each other. After these accusations, Armenia said Azerbaijan’s military bombed civilian cities in Nagorno-Karabakh including the capital of the region, Stepanakert.
Historically speaking, the conflict and fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan has typically only lasted a couple of days. However, these most recents conflicts have been going on for weeks. Each side has been attacking the other and then hitting each other harder in rebuttal. In an attempt to harm the government both Armenia and Azerbaijan have been launching attacks against one another, but it’s the civilians who are getting caught in the crossfire, according to British news source Independant.
Turkey, a NATO member, has backed Azerbaijan in an attempt to expand its control and influence in the surrounding region. In the past, Russia has intervened between the two countries to calm things down however, now there has been talk of Russia intervening on behalf of Armenia. If this were to happen, it would then pit Russia against a US NATO ally.
All of this fighting is leaving cities in rubble and there haven’t been any talks to resolve this conflict peacefully. This is why Armenian-Americans are in the streets protesting. DPMHS Principal Armen Petrossian hopes this will all be peacefully resolved.
“I hope that we have a positive resolution to what’s going on in Armenia pretty quickly and I hope that all of the parties come together for a peaceful resolution,” Petrossian said.
