“How can I be happy when others are suffering so much in Nagorno-Karabakh?” exclaimed an Armenian Christian woman in London a week ago.
A senior Armenian Church leader wrote to Barnabas pleading, “I appeal to Barnabas Aid to extend a helping hand and support our Christian brethren and sisters in Nagorno-Karabakh who desperately need food, medicine and other commodities.”
For over a month the Armenian Christian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, lying within Azerbaijan’s territory, has been cut off from Armenia, as Azerbaijani protestors blockade the only access route: the mountain road known as the Lachin Corridor.
Rarely reported by the international media, the growing humanitarian crisis inside Nagorno-Karabakh is now very serious. The Red Cross can get some medicines in, and gas is flowing in the pipelines to provide fuel to homes. But there is a severe shortage of food.
"The guns are silent now, but the war continues," said an Armenian journalist who lives in Nagorno-Karabakh. He was referencing the empty shops of today and the short war of 2020 when Azerbaijan seized huge swathes of land in Nagorno-Karabakh. Harassment and threats have continued against the Armenian Christian inhabitants of the enclave ever since.
An estimated 120,000 Armenian Christians are trapped inside Nagorno-Karabakh, including women, children and disabled.
We are thankful to God that our project partners have a way to get food to them, despite the blockade.