There are no oranges in Artsakh for Christmas.
Celebrated on January 6 according to the local Orthodox calendar, holiday festivities will be curtailed this year in the disputed Caucasus enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Demonstrations by reported environmental activists from Azerbaijan have closed the one road connecting the mountainous territory to Armenia, and Russian peacekeeping forces have failed to intervene.
Over 100,000 Armenians depend on daily imports of 400 tons of food and medicine to the enclave they call Artsakh. With the blockade of the Lachin corridor now in its third week, local officials are warning of a humanitarian disaster as they implement price controls and ration remaining goods.
But the Christmas tree is lit in the central square of the capital, Stepanakert.
“People will carry on with the traditions as best they can,” said Aren Deyirmenjian, country representative for the Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA). “But we will reflect the love of a God who stays by your side, even when all goes wrong.”
During a 44-day war with 6,500 casualties in 2020, Azerbaijan recaptured three-quarters of its internationally recognized sovereign territory, before Russia engineered a ceasefire. The indigenous Armenian inhabitants controlled the enclave for the previous 30 years, claiming the right of self-determination in an unrecognized 1991 independence referendum.
Following its defeat two years ago, Armenia pursued peace treaties with neighboring Azerbaijan and Turkey, which had backed their Turkic Azeri kin with decisive drone technology. But these were interrupted by further clashes in which Azerbaijan seized more territory in Nagorno-Karabakh and even along Armenia’s border.
And beginning December 12, Azerbaijani activists set up camp to protest alleged illegal gold and copper mining, exported through Lachin back to Armenia. Terms of the armistice left Russian peacekeepers in charge of the road, with no Azerbaijani oversight.
“We can stay here for months,” stated one demonstrator.
Local residents have reported shortages, with no fruit in Artsakh’s markets—part of the traditional Christmas Eve feast alongside fish, rice pilaf, and raisins. More critically, hospital patients lack essential medicines, with only a handful allowed transfer to facilities in Armenia proper. Gas supplies were cut for three days in the winter cold. And about 1,000 residents were stranded in the border town of Goris—including 18 members of a children’s choir that had performed in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan.
Azerbaijan has denied it is imposing a blockade. Officials have said that anyone will be allowed travel through the Lachin corridor upon prior permission and submission to local inspection. If none pass through, they blame the Russians and Armenians.
In a guest editorial, South African evangelist Michael Cassidy calls for prayer and wisdom during this historic opportunity.Recent events here in South Africa have left us (and you, no doubt) gasping. History has again landed in our laps with the quantum leaps of courage taken by President F. W. De Klerk and the momentous advent to center stage of the Nelson Mandela mystique. Our nation has done an overnight course change, the rules of the political book have been rewritten, and the shape of the future has been irrevocably changed. A curious amalgam of heady hope, high-wire political adventure, and mega-uncertainty has settled upon the very soul of South Africa. Never in the history of our land has such weighty responsibility devolved upon the shoulders of two such different men of destiny: the white President of Today and the black Prisoner of Yesterday. It is the stuff of which epics are born.Indeed, it is the Mandela Moment, and in many ways a matchless moment. Yet it is also one fraught with political peril. If the church—especially the church of South Africa—does not live out Christian principles and pray them in to protect the process, then danger looms. Christians must pray with intense and earnest intercession that Jesus will have his way with us. Without such prayer, great and positive forward movements such as the one we are caught up in now can be derailed by the demonic powers.This is not an indulgence in medieval fantasies or fairy tales. Rather, it is a call for us to take seriously the biblical view that our fight is not against “flesh and blood” but “principalities and powers, the world rulers of this present darkness” (Eph. 6:12). So let prayer from the church of Jesus Christ in South Africa and worldwide be the first order of the day. We don’t want anything to go wrong.Our prayers need to focus on four areas. First, we must seek supernatural wisdom (see James 1:5ff.) for Mr. Mandela and his colleagues and for President De Klerk and his. There is nothing the Evil One would like more than to interfere with their efforts to bring healing, justice, and a new day to our land. Likewise, we must pray for physical, mental, and spiritual protection for both leaders and their advisers. The release of Mr. Mandela brings hope, but it also brings great risk.Let us also ask God to pour the spirit of magnanimity upon South Africa. This is really the “Calvary spirit,” for the Cross requires self-giving and unselfishness from whites. It requires whites genuinely and deeply to repent for the iniquities and inequities of apartheid. The Cross also requires the supernatural spirit of forgiveness from blacks for all that has been inflicted upon them. An African proverb says: “He who forgives ends the quarrel.” Martin Luther King, Jr., put it this way: “We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive.… Forgiveness is not just an occasional act: it is a permanent attitude.”Finally, we must pray that in South Africa we may all be controlled by Christian principles. These would include dependence on God, love for enemy, humility, prayerfulness, mutual care, equality of dignity and opportunity, economic and structural justice (which is love built into laws, organizations, and institutions) along with national repentance (required from whites), national forgiveness (required from blacks), and reconciliation for and between all.We in South Africa ask Christians in the United States to pray fervently for us along these lines. And as you do, may the Lord bring his own gentle and probing scrutiny into your hearts to challenge you about whether Christian principles and prayerfulness are controlling your own nation as well.By Michael Cassidy, founder of African Enterprise.Members of mainline churches have gotten used to their denominational conventions pronouncing on the righteousness of social and political causes with which they may or may not agree. The distance between the pew and the convention is legendary. Many have learned to shrug it off, putting more faith in the common sense of local congregations than the machinations of national structures.Members of the American Bar Association (ABA), however, were not so sanguine earlier this year when the ABA House of Delegates adopted (by a vote of 238 to 106) a resolution opposing any legislation that tried to interfere with any woman’s access to an abortion. The resolution effectively gives the ABA the authority to file friend-of-the-court (amicus curiae) briefs in key cases regarding abortion (CT News, March 19, 1990, p. 49). So much for professionalism.ABA treasurer Joseph Nolan said he had heard from hundreds of lawyers who said they would resign if the resolution passed. And after the resolution passed (following two and one-half hours of bitter debate and parliamentary wrangling), Nolan himself resigned. ABA president Stanley Chauvin opposed the resolution, saying, “By no stretch of the imagination does this resolution come within the mission of the American Bar Association’s Constitution.” And president-elect John Curtin said he could not “in good conscience” sign any amicus brief supporting abortion rights and called the measure a “fundamental departure from the historic position [of the ABA] in protecting the rights of all.”Lawyers For Abortion?Are Nolan and Chauvin overreacting? We think not. Resolutions such as this one give the unknowing public the impression that the law profession is entirely on the side of unrestricted abortion. That, of course, is hardly the case. A similar misapprehension was created some years ago when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. The action was carefully orchestrated by pressure groups, and many in the helping professions are still smarting from that nonrepresentative action.So how did the ABA’s House of Delegates pass something that much of both its leadership and its membership opposed? How could it pass a controversial resolution that had nothing to do with its basic purposes of maintaining high standards for the practice of law? The answer is that the resolution’s backers were well networked and had the affair thoroughly orchestrated well before the membership at large got wind of the attempt.According to respected constitutional-law attorney William Bentley Ball, “So many conventions are badly attended. There is an inert mass of doctors, lawyers, and other professionals around the country, but zealous activists plan the policy of their organizations.”The solution, says Ball, is neither to retreat nor to resign. Since a relatively small percentage of ABA membership attends the national convention, a well-organized effort on the part of any special-interest group can wreak havoc when it’s time to vote. The ABA has 365,000 member lawyers, and a convention open to its full membership is scheduled for August in Chicago. The resolution is bound to be reconsidered there. We urge all those members who were upset and disgruntled over the handling of the resolution to register for that convention and, if necessary, to show their strength.All of us who belong to professional and learned societies—indeed, even those of us who belong to churches that are given to making pronouncements on controversial political and social issues—need to stay involved. And, occasionally, we need to raise a ruckus when our professional or organizational influence is manipulated by pressure groups and the public is given false impressions about important issues.By David Neff.For some time now, “good works” have been thoroughly devalued as the currency used to buy us the heavenly good life—thanks mostly to the work of the apostle Paul and Martin Luther. But the city of Miami has come to our rescue, giving “market” value once again to acts that until recently were at the mercy of altruistic whims. Because of jurisdictional concerns, however, all rewards are this-worldly.The brain child of law professor Edgar Cahn, who teaches at the District of Columbia School of Law, the “service-credit” system is based on classic market-capitalism principles. For every hour of volunteer work, a person gets a credit. That credit can then be redeemed.Service credit seems to be working. According to a report in Newsweek, Miami has the largest system in operation—700 volunteers who perform 8,000 hours of service work a month—but similar systems are already in place in Washington, Boston, San Francisco, and in a few smaller cities in the Midwest. The pragmatic value is undeniable. Many social services report increased effectiveness—as much as 800 percent in one instance.In a time when we are experiencing the rapid disintegration of families, neighborhoods, and other connective communities, this may be just what we need. If the Matthew injunction to “Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” or “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” won’t work, why not “Love your neighbor for yourself”?But a funny thing happened in Miami: Only 1.1 percent of the credits earned have been “cashed,” a rate that is positively counterproductive. Heaven forbid that people get the impression good works are good in themselves. The basis for the whole system would crumble. And we wouldn’t want that, would we?By Michael G. Maudlin.So far, only the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has gained access to Nagorno-Karabakh. Deyirmenjian said the Armenian social affairs ministry contacted the AMAA to participate in the ICRC’s 10-ton aid delivery, adding 220 pounds of infant formula to the first effort and 1,100 pounds of rice alongside two tons of sugar in the second.
Upon the aid’s arrival, the AMAA center in Stepanakert, located near the only Armenian Evangelical church in the enclave, coordinated distribution in the neighborhood, which included the congregation’s 125 members.
So far, local morale is high.
“Our office manager told me, ‘We are happy we are on this side of the blockade,’” Deyirmenjian said. “It gave me chills.”
Garegin Hambardzumyan concurs. A priest in the Armenian Apostolic church, he heads the Oriental Orthodox denomination’s Department for the Preservation of Cultural and Spiritual Values of Artsakh. Generations of Armenians have lived in the rugged, mountainous land for a thousand years, he said. They will not be scared away easily.
The Divine Liturgy for the January 5 Christmas Eve mass will be the traditional candlelight service, after which the faithful will carry the symbolic light of Christ back to their homes. Many will exchange gifts, and the church has distributed chocolate and Bibles to the 3,000 children who live in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“The family is the best place to feel the warmth of Jesus’ love,” said Hambardzumyan. “Continuing their life as if it were normal is a sign of dedication to their homeland.”
Last week, Armenia lodged a protest with the United Nations’ International Court of Justice, demanding the blockade be lifted. UNICEF, the UN institution for children, issued a warning. Pope Francis has expressed concern, and human rights organizations have called for unfettered access.
But some anticipate worse—a sinister continuation of history.
“The process of the Armenian Genocide has been ongoing since the Ottoman massacres of the late nineteenth century,” stated John Eibner, president of Christian Solidarity International (CSI). “Now, by placing Nagorno-Karabakh under blockade, the dictatorship of Azerbaijan is clearly telegraphing its intent to carry out another phase of the Genocide.”
Cosignatories to the statement include In Defense of Christians, International Christian Concern, and the Union of the Armenian Evangelical Churches in Eurasia. Prior to the blockade, Genocide Watch had already identified four of its ten stages of genocide at play.
An anonymous Christian leader in Azerbaijan pushes back against the charge. Withholding his name due to the sensitivity of commenting on political issues, he said the local discourse emphasizes the government’s intention to treat the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh as citizens, living peaceably in a multicultural nation. If they fight, they will be driven out, he warned. But there is no fear of genocide.
At the same time, he concurred with skeptical analysis about the protesters.
“We don’t care about ecology as such; this is not Sweden and Greta Thunberg,” said the source, who has authored a series of books exploring the spiritual consequences of historic geopolitics. “It is ridiculous; it cannot happen without direct order of the government.”
Peoples of the East are indirect, he said, dressing their pressure campaign in the guise of environmentalism to resonate with Western concerns. He believes the goal is to push Armenia to finalize a peace deal while Russia is distracted by its war in Ukraine. Azerbaijan wants to make clear it holds the upper hand.
Additionally, if the blockade sets up a checkpoint system into Nagorno-Karabakh, it will aid Azerbaijan’s national security. The government issued reports that allege Iranian security services have entered the enclave.
Azerbaijan, though a Shiite Muslim–majority nation, is allied with Israel and is a key supplier of natural gas to Western nations. Tensions with Iran have increased recently as both sides conduct military drills on the border.
Others posit a different rationale.
“Azerbaijan cannot take this step without the agreement of Russia—it is a combined action,” said Vazgen Zohrabyan, pastor of Abovyan City Church, northeast of Yerevan. “Moscow is ready to sacrifice the people of Nagorno-Karabakh for its economic interests.”
Also a political analyst with a master’s degree from Yerevan State University, he believes the Ukraine war has pushed Russia to side with Azerbaijan over interpretation of a clause in the armistice agreement. While the Lachin corridor was left under Russian peacekeeper supervision, the agreement’s final point called for the opening of all transportation routes, specifically mentioning the link between Azerbaijan and its Nakhchivan enclave.
A 20-mile railway once linked the oil-rich nation with its noncontiguous territory to the west, stretching along Armenia’s border with Iran. Azerbaijan calls it the Zangazur corridor (Armenians call it the Meghri highway) and wants an access arrangement similar to Lachin’s status now, with no customs control. The armistice says that Russian border police will oversee security.
For Azerbaijan, this will create a direct link with Turkey—bordering Nakhchivan—and the rest of Turkic Central Asia to the east. For Russia, this will provide a path to export its own natural resources through Azerbaijan to Turkey and eventually Europe, evading sanctions and the Western boycott, said Zohrabyan.
But as a pastor, his chief concern is humanitarian.
Abovyan City Church currently supports 30 families in Nagorno-Karabakh, a continuation of its emergency relief to hundreds during the war. And it recently partnered with a local businessman to open a bakery in Stepanakert, with 10 percent of its bread supply dedicated to the needy. Zohrabyan was due to attend the grand opening with the chief adviser to the enclave’s president—until the blockade halted traffic. The bakery remains closed, unable to find the necessary flour.
Holding the unpopular opinion that Armenia must forge peace with its enemy, he blames both sides for maintaining an atmosphere of distrust. But while the comparison between corridors is “logical,” he said, it is not “diplomatically legitimate.”
Lachin is the status quo and must remain open. Other routes are to be negotiated.
Until then, like many, he fears Azerbaijan is using its superior position to impose a checkpoint. He does not readily raise alarm but is concerned.
“When Lachin opens, it will be one way—out,” said Zohrabyan. “It smells like another genocide, to make life as hard as they can so that the Armenians will leave.”
In his New Year’s speech, Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev stated the Zangazur corridor would be opened “whether Armenia wants it or not.” But his rhetoric has gone further. He has highlighted the surrounding region as Azeris’ ancestral land—to which they will definitely “return.” He even described Yerevan as a “political and strategic goal” that Azeris “must gradually approach.”
Some view this language as positioning for negotiation. But others see a wider territorial ambition. Last month, Aliyev called the ethnic Azeris of Iran “our people” and said he would “protect [their] secular lifestyle.” And of the Zangazur corridor, his ambassador to Turkey stated it would connect the “torn Turkic world.”
Armenia is in between.
But within the current crisis, so are a few scattered villages. Armenia closed its border to prevent confrontations with Azerbaijani activists, isolating ethnic Armenian hamlets in the process. Inside Nagorno-Karabakh but on the other side of the blockade, they are suffering also.
In a “testimony to God’s work,” the AMAA was able to reach them. A female staff member in Yerevan loaded her car with flour, oil, and other necessities and went in faith.
Along the way, she received a telephone call from the office of the prime minister. She did not know the female staffer or how her number was obtained but politely thanked her for the offer of help.
Upon reaching the border, she needed it. Blocked by authorities, a quick phone call back to the official allowed her to pass. The beleaguered villagers received a “testimony to God’s love” amid geopolitical tension.
“Azerbaijan says it wants to live in peace,” said Deyirmenjian. “But starving a people gives little evidence you want to live together.”
