On a crisp Sunday afternoon, almost 200 people gathered at the Armenian Heritage Park in downtown Boston to honor the victims of the 44-Day War in Artsakh, the fighting that broke out last year between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The commemorative event began with the Armenian national anthem, the crowd singing along quietly, followed by a moment of silence for the 3,000-plus Armenian troops who lost their lives in last year’s conflict.
“It’s up to us to work on the heritage, values, and rights our fallen heroes sacrificed their lives for,” said speaker and state minister of the Republic of Artsakh, Artak Beglaryan. “Losing Artsakh means turning the final page for Armenian history.”
Last year’s conflict in the disputed Nagorno-Karabagh region — internationally recognized as a de facto part of Azerbaijan, but home to an ethnically Armenian population that calls it Artsakh — was one of the most violent escalations in the area since the end of a separatist war in 1994.
Armenians have worried that Azerbaijan has found a powerful ally in Turkey, which has offered political support to Azerbaijan in its fight to maintain control of the region, including supplying them with weapons, drones, and rocket systems.
Beglaryan, an alumnus of Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford, was a human rights defender in the region last year, appointed by the Armenian government, he said. He wrote reports about the conflict, which have been used by the United Nations and Human Rights Watch.
He urged Armenian-Americans to support the disputed region by moving to the region to improve demography and contribute to its economic development.
George Aghjayan, a Cambridge resident and chairman of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Central Committee of the Eastern United States, said he lost two cousins in last year’s war.
“Armenians aren’t welcome and aren’t safe. They don’t have rights when on their own homeland,” said Aghjayan, 57. “There has to be some economic development to show they have some viability to stay there. And right now, that’s not happening.”
Aghjayan and two others travelled to the disputed region last year to assess the situation, he said. “We helped renovate a school, a clinic for families affected by the war, and even a municipal building,” he said.
Barkev Kaligian, 92, came to the event, leaning on a walker. He is of Armenian descent and said the atrocities Armenians have been subjected to is “absolutely disgusting”.
“Not a lot of people know about what’s happening to Armenians,” said Grace Kanayan, 14, as she stood with her parents, hands tucked into her light-blue coat. “It’s important to bring awareness, that we are a country that needs to be recognized.”
Maysoon Khan can be reached at maysoon.khan@globe.com.
"conflict" - Google News
November 08, 2021 at 06:24AM
https://ift.tt/3GYMyGq
Armenian-Americans honor those lost in last year's conflict with Azerbaijan - The Boston Globe
"conflict" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3bZ36xX
https://ift.tt/3aYn0I8
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Armenian-Americans honor those lost in last year's conflict with Azerbaijan - The Boston Globe"
Post a Comment