Anna G

As a pacifist myself, I despise any kind of violence, especially war. I sympathize with the Azerbaijan people who were forced to leave their houses on the disputed territory. As an Armenian I experienced relocation and pain of losing one’s home (my ancestors suffered from it). But for most of Armenians now, this conflict is the fight for not simply a land, but our nation’s right to exist. There is no simple solution to this situation. Too much has been done from both sides. I only wish for a day when both Armenian and Azeri people can live on that land and be able to do so without risk. I pray for peace every day. My hope is to live in a world where the value of a single human’s life will be more than the ease at which wars are declared.

Image: Aris Messinis / AFP - Getty Images

Miganoush M

The last two weeks have been devastating for me and my home country Armenia. Armenian civilians in Stepanakert have been under attack by Azerbaijan with the support of Turkey. With no international mediation, Armenia is standing alone under the threat of a second genocide. The media is full of biased information. If you ask the humans living in Artsakh, all they want is to be recognized as a nation, but what they experience now is nonstop bombing from Azeri troops.

The situation can be easily illustrated by means of a comparison. The root of the problem is Stalin, who drew a line deciding to which country Artsakh belongs (see paragraph 1 in the history section). Apparently, he made other similar decisions which destroyed the lives of many humans, not only in the Caucasus region but in other post-Soviet countries as well. My dear friend and co-founder Gretta is Romanian/Hungarian. Her grandmother lived in a Hungarian village which from one day to another became a part of Romania! Virtually overnight, they had to study in and speak another language, and were forced to associate with a wholly new cultural identity. What could they do? Families who were unhappy and could afford to start anew left their homes. But most of the families could not afford to do this and had to cope with the new culture, language, and state. Read more here.

Well, Artsakhi Armenians don't want to leave their homes! And why should they - just because a long-dead dictator decided to draw a line and split territories like a piece of pie in a way which benefited his goals of appeasing Turkey at the time? If we are meant to accept Stalin's decisions as the law today, does this mean that we should also bring back the gulags? Is this what the world has come to?

I want to raise my voice and bring this topic to your attention. Armenians want peace and peace talks and international recognition of the Armenian nation of Artsakh.

Call for action

• If you live in Germany please raise your voice and sign this petition.
• Support humanitarian efforts for the Armenian civilians affected by the war by donating here.
• Support medical aid support for #covid-19 and war victims here. I know the initiators in person and I give my full recommendation that your donation is in trustworthy hands.
• Spread the word to raise awareness about the war and demand your country leaders to take action to stop the war.

Farida A

My country is in active war.

The war is not on the territory of Armenia. The Azerbaijani army is not trying to seize the territory of Armenia or any part of it. Nagorno Karabakh is not a disputed territory. It is officially recognised territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan.

I am a peacebuilder, social entrepreneur and the founder of Human Foundation. Without a doubt, I am against war. Now it is all about justice. We had hoped the Armenian military would leave occupied territory in peace. However, Armenia has already started terrorising Ganja, Migachevir, Barda and Absheron.These regions are very far from being a war zone. They are killing civilians.

From my side, I am organizing a fundraising campaign to help Azerbaijani civilians who lost their homes as a result of Armenian attacks since the 27th of September. I am also actively sharing true stories, justified by history, on our social media.

We want to stop a terrorism! We want peace!

Image: Aziz Karimov / AP

Anonymous

I do not hate Armenian people. Many people around me do not either. I have many friends and acquaintances of Armenian origin scattered all around the world. I like Charles Aznavour, Cher, Khachaturian, Kasparov. I am sure I will love Armenian mountains and nature, when I am allowed to visit. In fact, my great grandparents lived in Yerevan, until they were forced to leave to Baku, and my late grandpa up until his last day on earth dreamt of going back to his home in Yerevan. Azerbaijan and Armenia share so many amazing things in our culture, similar food, music, traditions, and even words that we use in our languages.

When I was 5 years old – I remember over a million refugees and internally displaced people coming to Baku. It was heartbreaking to see them suffering and dreaming to go back to their homes, to the land of their ancestors. Out of that million – thousands were displaced from Karabakh and from the surrounding regions. Three decades have passed and the children who were my age when displaced are now in their 30s.

As with my grandpa on his deathbed wanting to get back to their childhood home in Yerevan, they saw their grandparents and parents passing away, with massive pain and unfulfilled dreams of returning to their homes.

I am sure there are tons of Armenians who want peace as I do. They want to settle this long standing issue with Azerbaijan and build peace and stability in the region. I remember talking to a group of Armenians in one of the international diplomatic leadership programs. It was their first time being out of Armenia and in the first few days they were afraid of me. They thought I was some kind of a monster. Having lived in 10 countries and consider myself a man of the world – I spoke to them. At first, we didn’t even touch the Karabakh conflict, we talked about international relations, about culture and music. On the last day of the workshop, during the farewell dinner, one of them approached me and said that he was so sad that he had lived two decades of his life and had absolutely zero knowledge about Azerbaijan. He said there was zero benefit from having the conflict or the territories occupied by Armenia and he would trade all of that just to have a chance to know his neighbours better. I am sure there are tons of these kinds of people on both sides.

Laman J

Let me start with a question: how would you react if you, your family and your friends were expelled from the city you lived in because it was occupied by a neighbouring country and you had to run a long distance barefoot in winter just to avoid becoming a victim of a massive massacre? This is what happened to Azerbaijani people 28 years ago in Karabakh.

In all these years, Azerbaijan has demonstrated a willingness to gain territories back by peaceful means. Why isn't there enough pressure on an aggressor ignoring the principles of international law when there are four UN resolutions (822, 853, 874, 884) that demand its immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal from occupied areas of the Azerbaijani Republic?

Armenian provocations with irreversible consequences - such as the killing of civilians, the demolition of hundreds of civilian houses, the attack of villages that are far from the frontline, aiming at oil pipelines, etc.- are obvious signs that they are not interested in bringing peace and stability to the region.

On the contrary, Azerbaijan has never considered a war a solution of the present conflict — the only thing we want is to restore our territorial integrity, which is undisputed and is recognised by the whole world, and let the expelled Azerbaijani population return to their place of origin. What we demand is unequivocally in accordance with the international law and is something we have every right to demand.

Let justice prevail! Qarabağ Azərbaycandır!

Image:  Aris Messinis, AFP

Sara R

I wish to see people who are free from the fear of hearing weapons at any point in their day.

I wish to see people with peace of mind, free from any propaganda of hate, abuse and terrorism.

I wish to see people raising their children without hate for other nations, races and social statuses.

I wish that tourists would stop supporting the illegal occupation of lands.

I wish people would stop feeling proud for murdering innocent locals and calling it the “liberation of cities”.

I wish all organizations that call themselves “peaceful” stop any aggression and not close their eyes to problems.

Peace starts with our mindset. Peace starts from accepting our mistakes, learning from them, being powerful enough to ask for forgiveness and to forgive. We should remember that a war is only a war if both sides utilise military actions and are equipped. When military actions are focused on citizens (as it was recently in Ganja, Beylegan, Mingachevir, Khizi etc.), it is not a war, it is a lack of humanity.

After my experiences with people from different nations and building friendships with people from various countries, I have come to understand that even in the 21st century, nations will always have conflicts when international organisations are afraid to tell the truth. This happens when people are not brave enough to see, research and accept the truth.