Selective morality: why “Gaza and Israel are visible”, but Artsakh is not?

Regardless of geopolitical preferences, what is happening today between Palestine and Israel is a great human tragedy. However, this issue also has a strong political color. Gaza and Israel do not leave the front pages of the world’s media, and geopolitical players show genuine interest in the events in the Middle East.

Moreover, in a few days of clashes and a number of other actions, the humanitarian situation was brought to the point that it was announced to create a humanitarian air corridor for the delivery of necessary goods to Gaza. Humanitarian aid to Gaza is being sent from both the US and the EU, as well as Russia and China.

Let’s repeat once again: just a few days after the problem appeared, a humanitarian corridor was provided, while the blockade of Artsakh lasted 10 months, and the situation did not go beyond talking about providing such a corridor for the Armenians of Karabakh. Of course, in conditions when official Yerevan itself recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, this humanitarian corridor, even if it were opened, would only delay the catastrophe, but the fact is that for 10 months, the world and Yerevan were silent and watched people being subjected to ethnic cleansing only because they are Armenians and want to live in their homeland.

This is selective morality…

Neither in Moscow nor in Washington nor in any other part of the world did they talk about the blockade of Artsakh the way they talk about the situation in Gaza today. It is clear that in Washington, the Azerbaijani lobby is no less strong than the Ukrainian lobby, but this does not negate the fact that there is a selective morality.

We should ask ourselves once again: Is this just the world, or are we ourselves contributing to the fact that no one wants to talk about our problems?

A simple example: On October 18, it became known that a 3-day mourning period was declared in Turkiye in memory of thousands of those killed in Palestine. The corresponding decree was signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. We will not go into details of Turkiye’s own involvement in the events in the Middle East but only focus on the fact that the state with almost 85 million people declared mourning over the deaths of several thousand Palestinians. Throughout Turkiye and its foreign missions, the national flag will be lowered to half-staff until sunset on Saturday, October 21, 2023.
In Armenia, not only was mourning not declared for the nearly 300 military dead in Artsakh in Azerbaijan’s aggression on September 19-20, and for the 200 Armenian citizens who were burned alive during a blast at a gas station in Stepanakert, but also the accommodation of the ethnically cleansed Armenians was organized so badly that the head of government has already reported that 3,000 residents of Artsakh, citizens of Armenia, left the Republic.

By the way, another important point is that more than 100,000 residents of Artsakh are citizens of Armenia, and they were forgotten not only by the world but also by Armenia. In this context, an objective question arises: can any of the Armenian citizens living on the territory of the Republic after September 28 be sure that they will not have to repeat the fate of the Armenians of Karabakh, that is, be expelled from their land under the friendly silence of the “civilized world” and Yerevan?

Selective morality does exist, but what is our role in shaping such a picture of the world and such an attitude towards ourselves?