Annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh: the war of aggression enters a new phase

We publish this unofficial translation of an article of La Cause du Peuple.

After 10 months of famine, lack of electricity and heating following the establishment of a barbaric blockade by the Azerbaijani State, the 120,000 Armenian citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh were bombed on the night of September 18. Azerbaijan and Turkey have a political project to connect these two Turkic-language speaking states, but the Armenian people, with their two independent republics, are blocking the path to this criminal project.

It is for this expansionist policy that Azerbaijan and Turkey are trying through aggressive wars and genocidal policies to exterminate the Armenian people and invade their territory. The massive military invasion, on the night of September 18 to 19, by the military forces of Azerbaijan is part of this continuity. At the end of an intense battle, the Nagorno-Karabakh defense forces, starving for months and outnumbered, technically and tactically, were ordered to surrender. After just 24 hours, the government of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) capitulated, resulting in its rapid and complete annexation by Azerbaijan. More than 90% of the population had to flee their homes to hide in refugee camps and bunkers, mainly in the capital, Stepanakert. Only the city of Martakert refused to surrender, fighting to the end in the face of fascist aggression.

For more than 5 days, the fear of genocide weighed on the Armenian people. Surrounded by the enemy, without food, shelter, weapons and defense, Armenians were targets of torture, rape, murder and kidnapping. Azerbaijani soldiers circulated photos of children and adults wanted by their loved ones on Telegram channels, promising rewards for those who found them before they carry out barbaric acts on them.

It was finally on September 24, after a bloody week, that the exodus of the Armenians began. More than 120,000 Armenians from Artsakh left their lands, homes and lives to take refuge in Armenia. The majority only have the clothes they wore during the launch of the attack. Beyond this great humanitarian crisis, it is the beginning of a new phase in the wars of aggression against the Armenian people. The next step will be the attempted annexation of the Syunik region, a region of the Republic of Armenia coveted by the fascist Aliyev.

What happened was a planned and deliberately carried out ethnic cleansing by the Azerbaijani regime, with the support and participation of Turkey, and the factual complicity of Israel, the United States, the EU, Russia and the UN. All are complicit through silence, the sale of weapons, positions that equalize aggressor and attacked, empty declarations, corruption and their love of oil.

We are talking about the destruction of the lives and morale of thousands of people, some of whom have seen four wars since their birth. Some saw and fought for independence in the 1990s, independence won and defended at the cost of blood. Today they see the end of this struggle, the loss of their homes, their lands, their homeland. The teeth of the executioners are clenching in the Caucasus and no amount of humanitarian aid from imperialist hypocrites and UN puppets will be able to repair the wound in the heart of every Armenian. They will not be able to extinguish the flame of hatred that the Armenian people bear towards their executioners and their accomplices. Once again the seeds of a fighting generation are sown. More than ever, the Armenian proletariat needs to organize itself with a militarized party for revolution and national liberation.

The first enemy of the Armenian people is capitulation, and the traitors who spread it and want to sell themselves to the imperialists. Victory can only come through the struggle of the Armenian people hand in hand with progressives and revolutionaries throughout the region. The Armenian masses can triumph over the fascist hordes because the just war is always superior to the unjust war. It is on this fundamental truth that the sun of revolution and peace in the Caucasus will be reborn.