Many say US failed to prevent crisis, which has left 120,000 ethnic Armenians in limbo as Azerbaijan moves to take control of Nagorno-Karabakh region
The night before the Republican presidential debate, hundreds of Armenian Americans demonstrated outside of the California debate location, calling on GOP candidates to speak out about what they called a current genocide happening in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Across southern California, which has one of the largest Armenian diaspora populations in the world, residents expressed heartbreak and anger over what they saw as the failure of the US and Europe to prevent the current crisis, which has left the futures of an estimated 120,000 ethnic Armenians in limbo as Azerbaijan moves to take full control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The territory is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but has been governed by ethnic Armenians since the fall of the USSR – in which both Armenia and Azerbaijan were Soviet Republics. Azerbaijan gained territory in a 44-day war in 2020 that resonated so deeply in Los Angeles some local residents flew out to fight to defend their homeland.
An Azerbaijani military offensive this month saw Baku claim control over Nagorno-Karabakh and tens of thousands of its 120,000 population leave for Armenia, fearing they cannot trust Azerbaijan’s assertions it will respect the rights and religious freedom of those ethnic Armenians who chose to remain.
“Everything that is happening today is utterly predictable, and much of it could be avoided with more forceful American action,” Paul Krekorian, the first Armenian American president of the Los Angeles city council, told the Guardian.
“It’s a catastrophic situation. Genocide is happening before our very eyes,” Krekorian said. “And my country is doing essentially nothing.” Memories of the 1915 Armenian genocide, when 1 million to 1.5 million Armenians died under the Ottoman Turkish empire, remain strong in the community and many of the signs held outside the Ronald Reagan library referenced it and what the protesters saw as its echoes.
Armenian Americans said they are pressing for more than words of official condemnation – they’re asking for US government sanctions against Azerbaijan and its president, Ilham Aliyev; an end to US military support for Azerbaijan; and major humanitarian aid, from immediate efforts to transport sick and injured people out of the region, which is currently struggling with a lack of medical supplies, to long term assistance for displaced families.
Some Armenian Americans criticised the $11.5m in humanitarian assistance the US government pledged this week as “pathetic”, saying it amounted to less than $100 per person of the estimated 120,000 people that many Armenian Americans believe will ultimately be displaced.
“There needs to be compensation and restitution of these families, for what they’ve lost,” said Gassia Apkarian, a superior court judge from Orange county who is currently in Goris, the border town where refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh are arriving.
The Armenian National Congress of America (ANCA), a prominent advocacy group, repeatedly shared a video of USAID administrator Samantha Power during a visit to Armenia this week, and a critic who shouted at her: “Sanction Azerbaijan or go back to your country. You don’t care, stop the lies.”
Power became famous as the author of a 2002 book on how America should confront genocide, a book that argued there are “bystanders” and “upstanders” during every crisis, said Raffi Hamparian, ANCA’s chairman. When it comes to Nagorno-Karabakh, “in about every way imaginable, the Biden administration has been a bystander,” Hamparian said.
The point of the rally outside the Reagan library, which was organized by the Armenian Youth Federation, was to encourage Republican presidential candidates to push for more government action, Hamparian said. So far, he said, none had emerged as a champion.
“Republicans, speak up!” the roughly 300 protesters chanted. “GOP take action!”
