ON OUR OWN

Artsakh has been blockaded by Azerbaijan since December 12 amid a complete indifference by the global community. Adding insult to injury, the European Union, in an initiative led by Ursula von der Leyen, signed an electricity supply agreement with the genocidal regime of Ilham Aliyev while in Artsakh a critically ill patient was dying because he could not be brought for urgent treatment to Armenia and 120,000 Armenians in the territory are running out of basic necessities.  

In a letter just addressed to His Eminence Archbishop Anoushavan, Prelate, Catholicos Aram I of the Great House of Cilicia urged the church to get more actively involved in support of our nation.  

“In the critical circumstances that currently affect our people, as a church we are called upon to inspire hope in our beloved people, founded on faith and determination, helping the needy, seeking a cure for the ill, supporting the Armenian army, standing by the fatherland and Artsakh, and demanding justice from the international community for our people,” the Catholicos wrote. “With this faith and dedication, the church has served our people in the direst circumstances in history.”  

He said the church, “as the messenger of celestial hope,” must expand its presence in the life of our people, serving them. “This is the message of Bethlehem, especially in the difficult circumstances of today.” 

The lesson is clear. We are on our own. This also means that we have no one to respond to but ourselves, our children, our people, and God. As Archbishop Anoushavan highlighted in his remarks to St. Stephen’s community in Watertown last Sunday, let us draw inspiration from Jacob of Nisibis, or Hagop Medzpnatsi, who ascended our holy mountain to recover a fragment of Noah’s Ark.  

Not for being too obvious, the metaphor should be lost on us. We must fight for what is ours ourselves. No one else will.