The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

A people in pain and anger: Armenia after the ceasefire agreement in Nagorno-Karabakh

2020-11-10T18:53:49.781Z


After the ceasefire with Azerbaijan, riots break out in Yerevan. Many Armenians see the indulgence in the Nagorno-Karabakh war as unbearable torture.


Icon: enlarge

Protests in the Armenian parliament building against the ceasefire agreement with Azerbaijan

Photo: Dmitri Lovetsky / dpa

The mob has just been driven out of the meeting room of the Armenian parliament, the doors are already secured with wire, so Hrach Galestjan once again explains his view of things: Nikol Pashinyan had only become prime minister during the revolution two years ago in order to betray the country now : "We are undefeated on the battlefield. We still had a lot of reserves."

Galestjan, a 30-year-old in a training jacket, who says he works "in the fracking business" sounds radical, but many Armenians think this way or something like that after Prime Minister Pashinyan informed his people about a ceasefire agreement late on Monday evening.

Many people in the country have been terribly surprised by this.

Hundreds then stormed the seat of government on Republic Square and the People's Assembly, young men in faux leather jackets and camouflage pants beat up the President of Parliament Ararat Mirzoyan and looted the offices of representatives.

The police let them go for a long time, as if the officials understood this expression of popular anger.

Icon: enlarge

Hrach Galestjan: "We still had a lot of reserves"

Photo: Thore Schröder

Pashinyan had reached an agreement with the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, mediated by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, which provides for the deployment of 1960 Russian peacekeepers to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region - above all, extensive territorial concessions.

After more than six weeks of heavy fighting, not only will large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh Azerbaijan be struck, but regions bordering the exclave are also to be governed from Baku in the future, and the country will also have a connection through Armenian territory to the exclave of Nakhchivan - and thus: one Corridor to Turkey.

Ankara could provide its own peacekeeping troops for this purpose, which should make the torture perfect.

While the agreement is being celebrated on the streets in Baku, you can see on the streets of Yerevan on Tuesday:

excited discussions, arguments and dejected looks.

Armenia had conquered Karabakh and the surrounding area in a bloody war in the 1990s and at that time drove thousands of Azerbaijanis from there.

Many of the region's 145,000 Armenian residents are now threatened with a similar fate; many have already fled. 

Artsach, as Nagorno-Karabakh is called in Armenian, has an almost sacred meaning for the people.

The historian Vahran Ter-Matevosyan of the American University of Yerevan explains: "This agreement is a tragedy of biblical proportions."

Karabakh is one of the few places where Armenians have lived continuously for centuries.

"What is particularly tragic now is the way in which this document came about. It is demeaning and does not reflect reality," said the historian.

Prime Minister Pashinyan had not informed his government, parliament or the president.

On Tuesday, head of state Armen Sarkissjan was accordingly surprised and outraged: "I heard about it from the press. There were no consultations or discussions."  

Icon: enlarge

Discussion on Republic Square in Yerevan

Photo: Thore Schröder

"We heard victory slogans for six weeks, then suddenly everything was lost," said a young woman, describing the mood on Tuesday afternoon in the center of Yerevan.

Many Armenians also understand the Karabakh conflict as a struggle for survival against neighboring Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey, which never recognized the genocide of 1915: President Reccep Tayyip Erdoğan is a new Hitler for them;

the war of the Turkic People's Alliance serves ethnic cleansing, ultimately a new genocide,

this is what you hear from taxi drivers, politicians and young girls these days.

Turkish support has actually been a major factor in the Azerbaijani advance since late September.

Ankara had sent and probably also operated modern killer drones, and had also deployed Syrian mercenaries, especially on the front lines.

"Militarily, this conflict should have been resolved long ago, but the Armenians know the terrain and are fanatically fighting for their land"

Military expert Witold Repetowicz

Surrounded, left alone and militarily inferior - this impression had been firmly established among the Armenians since the start of the Azerbaijani surprise attack.

In the first days of the war, a particularly large number of young Armenians from the Artsach Defense Army and the regular Armenian troops died, also under attacks by drones or from cluster munitions.

"This conflict should have been resolved militarily long ago, but the Armenians know the terrain and are fighting fanatically for their land," analyzed the Polish military expert Witold Repetowicz in Stepanakert, the capital of Karabakh, a week before the quasi-surrender.

At this point in time the battle for the nearby Shusha (Armenian Shuschi) was raging.

But even the fall of the city, which is culturally and strategically of enormous importance for both sides, was in the end no reason to give up for many Armenians, rather it was denied.

Four of his friends are already buried in the Yerevan Heroes' Cemetery in Jerablur, says Hrach Galestjan.

"But we weren't finished yet. We could all have gone into battle too," he says, pointing to the young men who are standing next to him in parliament early Tuesday morning. "Unfortunately, nobody asked us."

Prime Minister Pashinyan agreed to the pressure of the army and the devastating situation.

The concessions are "unspeakably painful" for him too.

What is certain is that in doing so he at least stopped further Armenian losses.

These were finally included

allegedly 1,300 men, but estimated much higher.

Icon: enlarge

The Heroes' Cemetery in Jerablur: Almost everyone in the three million state knows a soldier who has fallen

Photo: Thore Schröder

Almost every family in the three million state has a victim to mourn, at least as well as everyone knows a soldier who has fallen.

Men were drifting in Jerablur

In the weeks with picks and jackhammers constantly new graves in the rocky ground, next to them the flower arrangements piled up;

every day the cries of mothers, sisters and lovers resounded anew.

Banners with the names of the dead fluttered over the streets of the country.

Nobody in Armenia has recently been able to escape the collective pain of the war, but at the same time the bloody past of the Nagorno-Karabakh region was an obligation especially for the young. 

Icon: enlarge

Rafi was shot in the leg, but would soon have been able to get back on the battlefield - and wanted to

Photo: Thore Schröder

The 53-year-old carpet dealer Aram Astvatsatrjan proudly showed a video of his son in the center of Yerevan on Tuesday.

He himself is a veteran of the 1990s war, a film by 20-year-old Rafi is now playing on his smartphone, on a hospital bed, grinning widely. 

Rafi was shot in the leg two weeks ago, the father says.

"But now he was already in rehab. Soon he could have gone back to battle."

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-11-10

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-24T11:12:22.612Z
News/Politics 2024-03-20T22:02:27.440Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.