On September 13, 2022, I woke up to news that I and my colleagues at Christian Solidarity International had been dreading for two years: the armed forces of Azerbaijan were attacking the Republic of Armenia. It was a full-scale assault; by all appearances, the prelude to an invasion.
As thousands fled their homes to escape the bombardment, I tried to reach CSI’s project partner in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, a man named Vardan Tadevosyan who runs a rehabilitation center for people with disabilities. To me, he is a heroic figure. When Azerbaijan attacked Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020, he evacuated his staff, but he stayed behind to care for his patients.
When we finally did reach him, he told us he was working to stave off panic among his staff and patients:
“Of course, they are afraid, and they are more afraid because they realize that we are all unprotected. There is no allied country to help us.”
Thankfully, a ceasefire, apparently imposed by the U.S., brought Azerbaijan’s attack to an end forty-eight hours later. But for those forty-eight hours, Armenian Christians were all wondering: Is this the invasion that will end us?
They know that Armenia is not strong enough to withstand the Azerbaijani military, especially with its enormous neighbor, Turkey, helping Azerbaijan. They know what happens to Armenian civilians who get caught behind Azerbaijani lines – the videos of executions and torture that Azerbaijani soldiers uploaded to the internet during the last war made that all too clear. They have heard Azerbaijan’s dictator call Armenians “dogs” and “rats” and pledge to “drive them out of our lands!”
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