“We awoke this morning to news that weighs heavily on our hearts,” wrote our Diocesan Primate in a solemn message on the morning of September 19, 2023—one year ago today.
News had just broken of another large-scale military attack on Artsakh, this time resulting in the shelling of peaceful communities, and the targeting of Artsakh’s capital city, Stepanakert. What followed were tense hours for Armenians across the world. A ceasefire eventually materialized, but at great cost to the Armenians of Artsakh, with painful casualties among soldiers and civilians, and the disarming of Artsakh’s defense forces.
Worse was to come in the days that followed, as an even more desperate reality emerged. The entire Armenian population of Artsakh was driven from their homeland, in an act of state-sponsored brutality by the Azeri government that was all-too-familiar to the Armenian consciousness.
His Holiness Karekin II gave the unfolding tragedy its proper name in a message to his people: “A century after the Armenian Genocide, under the eyes of the civilized world, our people are once again tasting the bitterness of genocide.”
It has been a solemn, painful year for all Armenians. For the 120,000 Artsakh Armenians who became refugees in September of 2023—many of them settled in Armenia today—the heartbreaking injustice of being exiled from their ancestral home is only superseded by the urgent necessity of building new lives, virtually from scratch, for themselves and their families.
But the words of our Primate from a year ago still ring with wisdom and truth. “We cannot predict what the ultimate outcome will be,” he said. “But one thing stands clear to me. And that is, that in the days to come, the people of Artsakh are going to need our support more than ever before. Equally clear to me is that we must stand united, as Armenians, ready to help in any way we can.”
He went on: “It is going to take great spiritual reserves to undertake this task. But our Lord Jesus Christ has given the Armenian people such strength in the past—and He will do so again. It is to Him, above all, that we must open our hearts, and ask for His help and blessing.”
That call for unity, compassion, and prayer, is as important today as it was a year ago—or at any time in our history. And as in other times of crisis in Armenian history, by the grace of God our people will endure, and move forward: continuing to build, renew, and pass on our identity to future generations, even as we vow never to forget the painful sacrifices of our history.
As Bishop Mesrop assured us a year ago: “The Lord Jesus Christ has given the Armenian people such strength in the past—and He will do so again.”