How To Commit Genocide in Plain Sight (Part 2) - Pray for Artsakh

UPDATE: finding ways to help and raise awareness about the ongoing Chrstian Armenian genocide in Artsakh, plus a savage shaming of those complicit with blood on their hands

Comrades: Pray for the Armenians of Artsakh. They are under siege again. After living in Artsakh for several millennia, Christian Armenians are being ethnically cleansed by Azerbaijan's dictator Ilham Aliyev and the complicit "free democracies" of the West.

On September 14, I wrote about the desperate plight of the 120,000+ Christian Armenians facing genocide in Artsakh. Since the beginning of 2023, Azerbaijan has blockaded the region to prevent the population from receiving critical supplies like food, fuel, and medicine. Their goal for decades has been to force the Armenians out, dead or alive. On September 19, Azeri forces attacked again, killing dozens of civilians including children. A few days later as the carnage was unfolding, Joe Biden shook hands with the Azeri foreign minister at the UN.

The Armenians are a strong and stubborn people, but they can only endure so much cruelty. As of this writing, 50,000+ of the 120,000 Artsakh Armenians have fled their ancestral homeland because they see no end in sight to the demoralization. Many had no choice because they were forced at gunpoint to leave their homes. Ruben Vardanyan, the leader of Artsakh, has been arrested. The democratic republic will officially be disbanded on January 1, 2024. Azerbaijan has plunged the area back into the stone ages. Without consistent electricity or internet, the fog of war has thickened. There are rumors on Telegram and Twitter of more civilian massacres, surrender agreements, and Armenian militias fighting valiantly to the last man.

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***Please consider donating to the Armenian Food Bank to help. Tag other writers who you think should amplify this story or leave your ideas in the comments on how to amplify. Share this article with any human who cares enough to take action.

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Artsakh will live on in memories, stories, and pixels. When I visited in 2018, I never thought I would be one of the last Americans to see this Garden of Eden before it was defiled. I think often of the lovely people I met there.

• Karin, the host of our guest house who sang beautiful traditional songs.

• Sako, the jolly khorovats (Armenian BBQ) grillmaster and his burly son who he was training to become a top wrestler.

• Armen, a boy who loved playing soccer and Arsenal because Armenia’s top player Henrikh Mkhitaryan was on the squad.

• Arsen, a veteran driver who regaled us with tales about the land as he skilfully navigated hairpin turns on gorgeous mountain passes.

• Hovhannes, the priest protecting the sacred Dadivank Monastery who pledged to remain after the area was surrendered to Azerbaijan.

• The teenage soldiers in uniform having lunch with their girlfriends.

Keep these people in your prayers.

Karin singing:

Hovhannes:

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Admire the pictures of monuments that will soon be destroyed:

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Listen to this System of a Down banger:

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Read a real journalist’s harrowing account of living through this slow motion genocide:

Every day, a number is written in the palm of my hand. Yesterday I was 425; the day before, I was 212. This is how we wait in line for bread. As I type these words, I am exhausted from standing for three hours for just one loaf — our source of primary nutrition these days. It’s already been a long time since we formed lines in actual stores — there is nothing left there, not even medicine. We only have bakeries and vegetable stalls. Strangers share their experience of cooking without the necessary ingredients. A woman behind me says, “This is the line if you want to live.”

For the last nine months, we have been deprived of everything: First, we lost the gas supply; a month later it was the electricity; our phone lines come and go and the internet works sparingly. We spent the harsh winter wearing coats inside our homes, shivering. My cupboards are empty — there is no shampoo, hair dye, shower gel, sanitary pads or even toilet paper. The last time I could find any hygiene product was about four months ago.

As a child, all I wanted was to grow up and become a journalist, to travel to foreign lands and share stories of my country. That wish became reality. But now, each night, I have the same dream — I am safe, and I am not a war journalist. Then I wake up, to what has become my nightmare. After nine months of enduring hunger, we are now in a bomb shelter — sleeping with kids who yesterday dreamed of bread and today dream of waking up tomorrow. I don’t know if we will wake up but I hope you will remember us for resisting this genocide with honor.

Respect to other Substack writers like

Nikita Petrov

and

Niccolo Soldo

for covering Artsakh.

The intrepid war reporter Patrick Lancaster is on the ground:

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This tragedy has many authors. I will name and shame those with blood on their hands. Warning - I try not to curse, but there is no way to describe this fucking farce without profanities. One of the reasons I started this samizdat is to give voice to the powerless and skewer the evil and incompetent. It’s my stack and we still have free speech for now. I can say whatever I fucking want about these heinous bastard shitheads.

Fuck Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s genocidal dictator:

Fuck Recep Erdogan, Turkey’s genocidal dictator and Aliyev’s wingman:

Fuck Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia’s cowardly President who threw Artsakh to the wolves. Only a corrupt fool would piss off his only ally Russia to simp for America’s empty promises.

Pashinyan is executing the color revolution playbook, arresting peaceful protestors who demand accountability for abandoning his people:

Fuck Joe Biden and his rotten administration, who virtue signaled about being the first to acknowledge the Armenian genocide and then let another one happen. They have not sanctioned Azerbaijan or stopped military aid. Meek regime mouthpieces like Samantha Power can’t even say the words ethnic cleansing or genocide and hide behind weak passive voice statements to avoid naming those responsible:

Fuck the feckless EU for selling its soul to the devil for 3% of its natural gas needs. Unelected commissars like Ursula seem hell bent on destroying Christians whether they are in Armenia, Russia, Serbia, or Europe.

Fuck the MSM for ignoring this story about real oppression and victims, while making click bait about fake oppression and victimhood.

Fuck Google for conducting a digital genocide, removing Armenian landmarks like churches and renaming all of the towns from Armenian to Azeri:

Fuck human rights GONGOs like Amnesty International and the UN. They had one fucking job: to stop human rights atrocities. Time and time again, they have failed. Where is the accountability? Credit to Christian Solidarity International for taking a stand.

Why the fuck is Israel for supplying weapons like suicide drones to Azerbaijan? Why the fuck is Russia for having their peacekeepers stand down while violence is perpetrated against civilians they are supposed to protect? Why the fuck are the Republicans silent? Why the fuck have the majority of American Christians and their churches not said or done anything to stop the persecution of Christians, but invite drag queens to preach?

This situation continues to evolve by the day. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.