We live in the 21st century and the world still hasn’t realized the importance of coming together as humans. We still witness violence and war all over the planet, fueled by people’s greed and thirst for power. Armenian Women, Lifelong Warriors were unfortunately forced to face one of the most recent episodes of this world’s cruelty.
Armenia
A Brief History on Armenia
During World War I, the Ottoman Empire set a goal to eliminate the Armenian race in a series of massacres that began in the late 1800s. However, after the Balkan Wars, in April 1915, the world witnessed one of the most horrible genocides in history. Following the orders of Talaat Pasha, the Ottoman authorities forced the Armenian people to go on Death Marches through the Syrian Desert. This included women, children and intellectuals. The fear of the Armenian resistance turning into a widespread rebellion against the Turkish nation led to this cruelty. And even though no such rebellions existed, mass killings still occurred. This led to more than 1 million Armenians losing their lives and sending thousands others into concentration camps to be tortured, robbed, raped and finally dispersed in foreign lands.
The Ethnic Cleansing of Armenians, however, did not work. The remaining survivors were able to rise and come together. In May 2018, they declared the independence of the Republic of Armenia from the Turks.
An Ongoing War
To the world’s shock, the Turkish people and authorities still do not consider the massacres that happened as a genocide. Nor did they ever send out an official apology for trying to wipe out an entire civilization. Instead, the fight over the lands, that are legally Armenian, is still provoking wars today.
The latest violent attacks on Armenian borders started from Azerbaijan in 2020. However, the latter did not stop at the borders but started attacking regions far more internal than the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh area.
Turkey now, as well as in the past, keeps on supporting Azerbaijan’s offenses that are resulting in hundreds of deaths of Armenian soldiers, while the entire world stands hands-tied, watching, or even completely oblivious to all the unfairness taking place.
Armenian Women, Lifelong Warriors
Armenian woman warrior
The most recent attacks resulted in one of the most horrific torture scenes that the world has ever witnessed. Azerbaijani authorities took five Armenian army women as hostages and went on to rape, stab and semi-behead one of the soldiers in front of the whole world’s eyes. They so cruelly gouged out her eyes and replaced them with stones. They even cut off her fingers and shoved them in her mouth!
This unimaginable violence, that was completely unnecessary, was carried out by the official army of a country that isn’t only a member of the world order, but also considered the savior of Europe and a worldwide gas provider.
A Blind Eye
The whole world turns a blind eye when it comes to the “less important” or “less influential” countries. Nobody talks about the children of Palestine or the terror attacks in Syria. The people don’t want to admit to the horrendous acts carried out by so-called humans. They don’t want to acknowledge or even see them because they are reminders of how fragile and cheap one’s life can be.
But it is time to rise against all oppressors. It is time to stand for Armenia. To say the victims’ names and repeat them loud for the whole world to hear. It is time for all countries to come together to defend the oppressed and put an end to the horrendous actions of the oppressors responsible for all this misery.
https://www.facebook.com/ashod.pakradouni
Ashod Pakradounian, a Lebanese-Armenian political activist, so rightfully wrote: “Let these rocks in her eyes show you what Azerbaijani gas costs us. The fingers in her mouth all point to you, your velvet revolution, your 600,000 votes, your age of peace…”
“117 years my people have been slaughtered and mutilated, while you achieve your train tracks, your silk roads, your spice roads, your sick man of Europe…”
“I hope you see what kind of monster hands you shake in your meetings for Europe, for the Middle East, while you sign away her life for your own warmth!”
Authored by Yara Fakhoury
