By: Nareg Charkhedian
Green hills and blue skies on campus at College of the Canyons, but for some of the college’s students, their relatives thousands of miles away are going through some terrible times.
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, reached new heights this past month.
“Artsakh was Armenian, Stalin gave it to Azerbaijan. So the whole reason that this entire thing is happening the way it is, is because everyone is currently recognizing a border drawn by a man who murdered 20 million people.” said COC Professor Mike Harutunian
Although there have been attempts of peacekeeping from other countries, the warfare between Armenia and Azerbaijan has continued since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
After the end of their war in 1994, Armenia was victorious in Artsakh. But in recent years, Azerbaijani troops are the ones singing praises in the mountainous region. While troubled times were happening far away, Armenians here felt their own pain.
COC alumnus, Anthony Aroyan spoke on the pain he felt watching from afar: “The emotions change like every day, one day it’s you know very solemn, some days you’re just angry, because, sometimes you feel like there’s nothing you can do about it. There’s a sense of loneliness maybe that feels like we’re kind of being left by the rest of the world to kind of deal with this ourselves.”
Armenians in Artsakh are suffering a humanitarian crisis, being reminded of the genocide they suffered in 1915 from the Ottoman Empire. Armenians here are reminded of that pain.
“I’m really sad about it, you know I visited Armenia back in 2019, but then seeing how much has changed between now and then and seeing that history is being repeated…” Said COC Student Sophie Manukyan, “And it’s just not receiving enough coverage on the news, and not that many people know about it, and I just think that it’s terrible.”
Unsure of what the future holds for the Armenian people, Armenians all around the world are praying for better days.