Tensions between Armenia and bordering country Azerbaijan remain high. In 2020, a conflict broke out between the two countries where close to 7,000 people were killed. Out of the conflict, Azerbaijan gained significant disputed territory, while Armenia made claim to a strip of land called the Lachin Corridor.
Since December, Azerbaijan has blockaded the Lachin Corridor. The Armenians living there have no natural gas, and electricity remains spotty. What appears to be a simple land dispute has deep ties to a religious feud and Christian persecution.
Says Philos Project President Robert Nicholson on the blockade, “The situation is extremely urgent and existential. This is the oldest Christian nation facing again for the second time in only about a century the possibility of a genocide … This is in fact not just a territorial dispute. While there are territorial questions, I see this dispute absolutely as one of values.”
Experts believe the goal of Azerbaijan, a country over 95% Muslim, is to force the Christians living in the Lachin Corridor to leave. Sam Brownback, former Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, says, “Azerbaijan, with Turkey’s backing, is really slowly strangling Nagorno-Karabakh. They’re working to make it unlivable so that the region’s Armenian-Christian population is forced to leave; that’s what’s happening on the ground.”
Will you join us and Global Christian Relief President and CEO David Curry in praying for Armenia and praying peace over this situation?
