They’ll likely get away with again also, as Azerbaijan has a well-oiled PR machine. Genocidal killers take advantage of the world’s indifference. As Hitler himself said, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
“Archbishop accuses Turkey of backing ‘third Armenian genocide’ in Nagorno-Karabakh,” by Inés San Martín, Crux, October 16, 2020:
According to an Armenian archbishop, Turkey is perpetrating a “third genocide” against the oldest Christian nation in the world.
He claims Turkey is using Azerbaijan to attack the Christian community in Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority-Armenian region of Azerbaijan that has been a de facto independent state since the 1990’s.
Recent fighting in the region has seen its churches targeted by Azerbaijani forces.
“It was never a religious conflict,” Armenian Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan told Spanish news agency EFE, days after shelling impacted the Holy Savior Cathedral, also known as the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral.
Martirosyan is the current Primate of the Diocese of Artsakh – as Nagorno-Karabakh calls itself – of the Armenian Apostolic Church….
According to Martirosyan, the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan was never a religious conflict, because Armenians “don’t combat against mosques. We have no problems with the peoples of other confessions, and we never have had.”
The archbishop has been in Artsakh since 1989, so has been an eyewitness to the entire conflict.
“The heart of this conflict is rooted in the defense of the most elemental rights men have. The people who lived in the [Soviet] Karabakh couldn’t exercise their most basic rights. And they spoke up. Yes, we’re Armenian, we want to know our history, we want our churches to be open,” he said.
He told the Spanish news agency that for over seventy years the Azeris who ran Karabakh – incorporated to the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan – shut down all the Armenian churches.
“This was the problem,” he said. “There’s no religious conflict between Christians and Muslims here.”
Armenians often argue that Christianity is like the color of one’s skin: It cannot be changed, hence the influence the Armenian church has in the lives of the faithful.
Speaking about the shelling of the cathedral, the archbishop said that the Azerbaijanis want to “stomp on the symbols of our faith. They are barbaric. But this is no surprise for us: They did this in the war of the 1990s, when they attacked the monasteries.”
He believes that the churches are being targeted in an attempt to “weaken the moral” of the people.
“They want to bend our resistance,” Martirosyan said. “They don’t care that there is also a mosque here.”
He’s convinced that the bombing that cause the shelling in the cathedral is the “classic behavior of terrorist who cannot stand cultural, spiritual and religious values.”
He puts the blame squarely on the Turkish government, which supports Azerbaijan militarily.
“They destroy it all,” he said. “They’re authentic vandals. A terrorist, Turkish president [Recept Tayyip] Erdogan, trains them and send them to another terrorist, President [of Azerbaijan] Ilham Aliyev, who sends them to the front line.”
The archbishop was born in Sumgait, a seaside town of the then-Azerbaijan Soviet Republic. A pogrom in late February of 1988, during the early stages of the Armenian nationalist Karabakh movement, led to the systemic elimination of the Armenian population in the town, including Martirosyan’s family. The death toll is disputed: The official Soviet toll was 32, although Armenian sources put the figure closer to 200.
“This is the third genocide attempt,” Martirosyan said. “The first was in 1915 [when the then-Ottoman Empire systematically killed 1.5 million ethnic Armenians], the second in Sumgait and other cities of Azerbaijan. Now, we’re on the third one.”
The prelate is convinced Turkey is behind the current war because Erdogan has a foreign policy of “expansivity” towards a “region controlled by Russia for over 200 years.”
Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, he argues, are the only thing preventing Turkey from accomplishing its goal….
jirtu says
Every word of the archbishop is accurate. I am disgusted as I see the world sit and watch 10-million Azerbaijan, 80-million Turkey, plus Syrian mercenaries and Pakistani/Afghan volunteers attack 3-million Armenia. What will it take for the U.S. to stop the Turkey’s Erdogan and Azerbaijan’s Aliev? Trumps numerous investments in Turkey must have something to do with his silence. The biggest Trump Tower (actually two towers) in in Istanbul. Trump’s family has close ties with Erdogan’s family. Thus, Trump’s self-interest (not for the first time) is determining U.S. policy. Just as in third-world countries and in dictatorships.
Boycott Turkey says
I agree also with the Bishop I am disgusted to it’s true Trump does Admire Erdogan American foreign policy is always pro Turkish but now I am disgusted with Putin Russia to what kind of a ally are they to Armenia ? They have a Russian base in Armenia and Russia is doing nothing you cannot trust anybody nowadays you need to build your own military up and not reli on called allies they are enablers in my opinion I’m fed up with this POS Turdogan and the dictator of Azerbaijan which the media does not call a dictator all for oil I pray the civilians of a Artkash there is no justice in this sick evil world Turkey is a rabid dog and it needs to be put out of its misery.
Vladimir says
Armenia elected an anti-Russian government, Pashinyan’s government, which wanted the Russians out. Now this conflict happens and they’re not saying that anymore. Russia is being very careful, and they should be careful.
Boycott Turkey says
I don’t believe Russia would have helped the Armenians even if a pro Russian government had been elected they didn’t help the Serbs in Kosovo dispite them being pro Russian I think countries like Greece and Armenia need to become strong in military and get nuclear weapons and not rely on Russia EU or NATO Russia and West are both Pro Turk
gravenimage says
President Trump has spoken out for the Armenians–but he should do more.
Mauricio says
People in the West hardly know about the armenian and greek genocides perpetrated by the turks, which happened years before the well known jewish genocide by the nazis. That’s about the difference Hollywood make. Poor armenians, they don’t seem to have anyone to support them.
gravenimage says
Actually, Hollywood has made quite a number of films about the Armenian Genocide, including a silent film made at the time.
Others include “The Promise”, “Ararat”. and “The Cut”, “1915”, and documentaries “”Armenian Genocide” and “Architects of Denial”–and some of these have been made recently. There are others.
Now, filmmakers have not always understood the central role of Islam in this atrocity–but almost all have been sympathetic to the victims.
jirtu says
The novel which would have made the most dynamic movie about the Armenian Genocide is “Forty Days of Musa Dagh” by Franz Werfel. Written in the early ’30s, it was a bestseller in Europe and in America. MGM studios bought the rights, had the screenplay done, sets designed an even picked Clark Gable to play the lead. Then a letter came from the State Department not to shoot the movie because the Turkish ambassador had complained…. plus MGM movies could be banned from being screened in Turkey. MGM canceled the project. Several times since, prominent actors (Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson) has announced plans to produce and star in “Forty Days of Musa Dagh” but there has been no follow-up announcement. I wouldn’t be surprised if pressure was put upon them or the threat of a Turkish boycott has cancelled the project.
gravenimage says
Very depressing to hear, Jirtu. I just wanted to note that there had indeed been some films made about the Armenian Genocide.
LB says
All those films about Armenian genocide you mentioned, combined with others you haven’t mentioned (though I doubt there are many more), are virtually non-existent next to the sheer volumes of movies, documentaries, TV shows, comic books, novels, etc. about the evil Nazis and helpless Jews. Which is good, every person in the world should be aware of Nazi atrocities against the Jews in order to stop a similar event from happening in the future.
But here’s what’s bad about it — that is the only genocide people in the West know about. Nazis killed 6,000,000 Jews in concentration camps. That’s it, that is all that people know, nothing else. As if the Jews were the only civilians targeted by the Nazis (what about ~2M Serbs and ~1M Gypsies?), indeed as if they were the only people in history who were ever a targeted for genocide.
The Jewish genocide is so popular that it even got its own custom name — The Holocaust, accompanied by a custom-made slur for anyone who dares question it — anti-Semite.
Don’t you see the problem here? Where is the name (and the slur) for Armenian genocide? How about Rwandan genocide? How about any other genocide in history ever? Where are their abundant movies, TV shows, merchandise, etc.? And yet here we are wondering why barely anyone knows of Armenian genocide, whereas The Holocaust is one of the most monetized historical events ever.
School classes may mention other genocides on occasion (although even passing mentions are shrinking by the day with the revision of history going on today), but the majority of the people don’t even remember what they had for breakfast yesterday, let alone what some some teacher once said as they were doing anything else other than paying attention in class. Sadly, pop culture and Hollywood are today’s teachers and I agree with Mauricio above — it’s simply not “in” to stand up for Armenians because a) almost no one knows about them, and b) they are further vilified by the MSM and their pro-muslim agenda.
Sad but true.
Mauricio says
Thumbs up LB
Vladimir says
What about the murder of millions of Slavs by the Fascist butchers?
gravenimage says
There was actually a fine film made about the genocide in Rwanda–“Hotel Rwanda”, from 2004 with Don Cheadle. This film was highly praised by critics, and made multiple top ten lists. It was nominated for three Academy awards, and won several other awards.
Harrowing, but one of my favorite films.
Mauricio says
“Ararat” and “The Cut” were not actually Hollywood movies. I’m not sure about the others you mentioned but they seem to have bad reviews; they were recently released and probably didn’t get as much publicity as they should have.
Anyways, films about nazis have been made since Charles Chaplin’s “The great dictator” (1940) and Italian film “Rome, open city”(1945) and they have been as good as “Schindler’s list” and “The pianist” so I don’t think there is any valid comparison…
What about the Greek genocide? I only have this to share: an amateur short film trailer here:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T1bVIBl7_MU
Boycott Turkey says
Thanks for the link
Mauricio says
You are welcome, my friend. There are some interesting experimental orthodox films available in that channel “Byzanfest”.
gravenimage says
“The Promise” was indeed a Hollywood movie, starring Christian Bale.
It got generally good if not stellar reviews–here is one from Roger Ebert’s organization:
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-promise-2017
As for Hollywood focusing more on WWII, this should not surprise–Americans actually fought in that war, as did our allies in Britain.
I should also mention Jeffrey Eugenides famous book, “Middlesex”, which begins with the destruction of Smyrna and focuses on the Greek Genocide in Turkey.
John Howitt Jack says
There is a large opportunity in this solve the Armenians problem and get Turkey out of NATO at the same time and that is something that the Russians would willingly help with. In no sense of the word is Turkey an ally of any NATO country.
R Russell says
Many years ago I read the book by Armenian, Demos Shakarian who founded the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship.
‘The Happiest People on Earth’.
In it he said that a prophet in their church had warned them to emigrate because terrible things would happen to them if they didn’t. Many heeded his warning and went to the US but many stayed at home in Armenia. Reading this article reminded me of that prophecy.