The Critic Magazine published an article on the ongoing situation in Artsakh

“Beneath Armenia’s hauntingly beautiful folk music, delicious cuisine and enduring pride lies a tragic history of deadly persecution, genocide and abandonment. Now, past horrors could be repeated if something isn’t done as soon as possible about the murderous intentions and actions of Armenia’s neighbour, Azerbaijan,” Journalist Paul Bryan writes in his article in the British The Critic Magazine.

“At this time, over 120,000 ethnic Armenians are trapped in desperate circumstances by Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev whilst the West twiddles its thumbs and gives him a wink. You’d hardly know this from much of the news media, which is more focused on blasting out self-righteous rhetoric about how America is saving “democracy” in Ukraine or hyperventilating over Donald Trump’s latest indictment,” he notes.

Brian emphasizes that in this case, the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which held a referendum in 1991 and declared independence from the USSR, is at risk. However, most of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) was occupied by Azerbaijan during its 2020 invasion. This cut off Artsakh from the rest of Armenia, except for access via the Lachin Corridor, which Armenians call “the road of life.”

“Artsakh has never been part of sovereign Azerbaijan, which was only recognized in 1991 and has tenuous claims to nationhood itself. In addition to Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan claims it has owed “ancestral” land inside Georgia, Iran and other nations, though it never claimed its current enclaves such as Nakhichevan at the time of its independence. Now, Baku’s pan-Turkic ambitions are constantly expanding the list of areas that are supposedly becoming spontaneously and inherently “Azerbaijani”, with Artsakh at the top of the list.”

Bryan points out that the West wants to continue supplying Azeri energy to Europe to replace lost sources from Russia, and NATO’s “democracy” rhetoric has no place in this crisis.

“Azerbaijan is doing its best to ethnically cleanse every last Armenian from Artsakh or force them into a humiliating, enslaved position with no rights. It’s counting on Westerners turning a blind eye in order to accomplish this goal. Its offer to let Armenians remain unmolested inside Azerbaijan rings more than hollow coming from a racist, autocratic regime that awarded war criminals with its highest honours after they viciously murdered and beheaded Armenians, including “National Hero” Ramil Safarov and Ibad Huseynov. The Azerbaijani army committed numerous atrocities and war crimes during its 2020 invasion into ethnic Armenian territory, posting clips on social media with impunity and mocking and spitting on Armenian civilians before beheading or desecrating them in scenes worthy of the worst actions of ISIS.

Baku claims Armenians have no authentic, native history or right to their land, perhaps fearing what it would see if its own government and state looked in the mirror. Azerbaijan’s government has gone so far as to engage in some imaginative archaeological propaganda and claim Armenian churches aren’t even Armenian Turkey backs Azerbaijan, as does the government of Israel, the UK and the United States. These powerful states see Azerbaijan as a useful oil supplier and a bulwark against Iranian influence in the region,” the article says.