For Afrikaners as a small minority in a country with a hostile government and majority population, it is important to take note of the situation of minorities elsewhere, even if the situation is different.
Although I already wrote about Karabakh and the Armenian minority in Azerbaijan last month, since then things have gone even worse than feared at the time. An outcome has been reached which amounts to a total defeat of the Armenian population in the Karabakh region.
First, Azerbaijan closed the Latschin Corridor connecting Armenia and Karabakh, contrary to the ceasefire agreement and actually under the protection of Russia, practically starving the Armenian minority. When there was no significant international protest and especially no interference from Russia’s side, Azerbaijan could move on. They then occupied the part of Karabakh, which was still under the control of the unrecognized government of Arzach (the Armenian term for Karabakh), in a campaign that lasted only one day.
The Armenian population of the enclave, about 120,000 people, immediately fled to Armenia and left their homeland for generations without a chance to ever return. And lo and behold, the Latin corridor, which was closed to aid supplies, was now suddenly open so that the ethnic cleansing of Karabakh could be completed quickly. The president of Arzach was also arrested and his government had no choice but to dissolve all of Arzach’s structures and leave them at the mercy of the conquerors. Their houses will soon be inhabited by Azerbaijani settlers and the centuries-old heritage of monasteries and churches will be destroyed or at best left to neglect.
At least the Karabakh Armenians have a motherland to flee to and people who welcome their “brothers and sisters” in solidarity, even though Armenia itself is a poor country that does not know how to suddenly accommodate so many refugees. Armenia has about three million inhabitants and is about 30,000 square kilometers in size (one third more than the Kruger National Park) and now more than 100,000 people arrive in a matter of days.
The Armenians are not just a small people among many in the ethnically very diverse Caucasus region. It is a small Christian island surrounded by much larger Muslim countries in the West (Turkey), East (Azerbaijan) and South (Iran) and the first Christian state in the world, since 301 AD This Christian island is now even smaller due to the loss of Karabakh and about 1,700 years of civilizational history in this area will end in 2023. After the lost war against Azerbaijan in 2020 and the partial conquest of Karabakh, there has always been the hope and expectation that the Armenians in Karabakh would at least retain cultural autonomy in exchange for the re-incorporation with Azerbaijan.
The state of affairs also clearly shows Russia’s cynical game with small nations within its spheres of influence. Russia, itself a Christian country, saw him as a protector of the Armenians because of the religious ties, but now did not move a finger to protect them. In fact, Russia as mediator did not even fulfill the terms of the armistice agreement already unfavorable to Armenia.
Russia’s actions are typical of any great power (and parallels with the USA or Britain come to mind): if it serves its interests, then the country is the champion of persecuted minorities, if the minorities have lost their usefulness , they are thrown to the wolves.
Probably the Russian minority in Ukraine will also realize that they are only pawns in a chess game of the great powers, who will be sacrificed if it serves a strategic goal. This only applies to the Russian leadership, the ordinary Russians are often themselves victims of the government and have suffered a lot in their history.
