First anniversary of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict leaves Armenians with more questions than answers

Activist Chris Simonian discussed Armenia’s struggle with local clashes, displacement and apathy from the international community. Photo courtesy of Simonian

Hearing that large swaths of Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous zone located between Azerbaijan and Armenia, had been surrendered to Azerbaijan, Armenian-American activist Chris Simonian found himself disheartened. As someone looking to repatriate back to Armenia, the news was especially personal.

“Every time (the Armenian Prime Minister) meets with someone, he's giving (Azerbaijan) another arm and a leg,” said Simonian at a Sept. 27 Armenian Student Association (ASA) event. “Next, we're just going to have nothing.”

The discussion marked the first anniversary of a 44-day war over Nagorno-Karabakh, also known by Armenians as Artsakh. But, 2020 was far from the first time the region had seen conflict. In the 1920s, the Soviet Union established the area as being within Soviet Azerbaijan’s territory, despite having a majority ethnic Armenian population.

As the Soviet Union began to collapse in the late 1980s and early 1990s, tensions flared as Nagorno-Karabakh declared itself an independent state, pushing Armenia and Azerbaijan into an all-out war that lasted until 1994. Over 30,000 people were killed in the conflict.

On Sep. 27, 2020, war erupted again as both Armenian and Azerbaijani forces clashed over the breakaway state. 

Watching the war unfold from abroad was difficult for Simonian, who lived in Los Angeles at the time, so he decided to serve as a combat medic in Nagorno-Karabakh while the war came to a close.

“I helped out everywhere I could; I jumped from battalion to battalion,” said Simonian, who still serves as an active member of the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF), at the ASA event. “There (were) a lot of young boys. It was very tough seeing that.” 

Sophene Kevorkian, co-president of ASA and junior broadcast journalism major, described feeling guilty about not being able to help enough.

“I was begging for my parents to let me go to Armenia,” Kevorkian said. “I’ve been to Artsakh … I’ve seen the way they live. It just breaks my heart to know that they continue to go through such horrific things. It makes me feel like, ‘What am I doing here?’”

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While Kevorkian wasn’t allowed to travel to Armenia during the war, her mother, Ani Hovannisian Kevorkian, was out in Nagorno-Karabakh capturing the conflict on camera. The footage, which profiles various people and events in the region, was posted on social media in the form of various short documentaries.

“(My mother) was supposed to stay there for three days. She ended up staying there for two weeks,” Kevorkian told The Panther. “I’m sure it really affected her, too. She wanted to stay (in the region) for months.”

The conflict ended in November with a Russia-sponsored agreement between the two countries, which ceded much of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan. The agreement also deployed Russian peacekeepers to monitor the region. 

After the peace agreement was announced, Simonian returned to Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan. There, he protested against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his participation in the Russian-brokered deal. 

“What (Pashinyan) did was give away not just land, but (also civil) rights,” Simonian told his audience at the ASA event. “Armenia itself does not recognize Artsakh, so why would anyone else?”

Thousands like Simonian had taken to the streets demanding Pashinyan’s resignation, angered by the prime minister’s decision to relinquish a region with a 95% ethnic Armenian population over to Azerbaijan. Simonian recalled being met with violence. 

“(Pashinyan) would call in special forces — they would come, throw us to the ground, throw us in a car and take us in,” Simonian said in an Oct. 2 interview with The Panther. “It happened a lot, it was everyday.”

Now, Simonian believes that parts of Armenia, like its southernmost province of Syunik, are still at risk of being lost. Simonian is also concerned about the presence of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh and noted the possibility of Armenians being caught in the crossfire of a larger geopolitical conflict.

“People talk and say, ‘We’re going to become Russian in a few years. If there’s going to be a war, it’s going to be between Russia and (neighboring countries). We’re just going to be caught in the middle of it,’” Simonian told The Panther. 

Amid severe displacement in Nagorno-Karabakh and other crises, both Simonian and Kevorkian believe that Armenia is in need of a stronger civic initiative if it wants to remain intact. 

“(Pashinyan) was voted in by the people because he seemed like he was for the people, and now, it just got very complicated,” Kevorkian said when discussing Armenia’s new parliamentary government. “We don’t really have much guidance.” 

While the two agree that Armenia is in need of help, they differ on how people in the United States can contribute to the cause.

At the ASA event, Simonian told attendees that there are clear limits to helping from abroad, stating that marches, demonstrations, and donations can only go so far in helping Armenians unify. 

Even recent U.S. legislation like the Cardenas-Schiff-Sherman Amendment, which demands the immediate release of Armenian prisoners of war from Azerbaijan, doesn’t rouse much hope in Kevorkian. 

“I think (new bills from Congress) are effective because they do bring awareness and (allow) people to educate themselves,” Kevorkian told The Panther. “I also feel like there have been a lot of broken promises.”

A notable lack of American interest surrounding the Nagorno-Karabakh war reminds Kevorkian of a similar apathy toward recognizing the Armenian Genocide. That’s why, for both Simonian and Kevorkian, fighting that apathy and spreading awareness are a major focus. 

“We all have such large platforms,” said Kevorkian, who hopes to create human rights-oriented documentary films, not unlike her mother. “It’s really important that we educate ourselves on issues that don’t necessarily affect us. We’re all connected in some way.”