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Renowned Armenian-American novelist and the author of 18 novels, including the bestsellers Midwives and The Sandcastle Girls, has come up with an opinion piece in the New York Times about his journey to the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, entitled “My proud pilgrimage to my homeland”. The novelist has visited Talish village in North of Karabakh, the trenches separating the Karabakh armed forces from Azerbaijani troops, drawing parallels with the reminiscent of World War I.

The author reminds, that Nagorno-Karabakh got war earlier this year, when Azerbaijan attacked across the eastern border in the small hours of April 2, breaking a cease-fire that had largely held since 1994.

“Here in Talish, the 400-person village was so badly shelled that today it has been abandoned and the residents resettled in other parts of the country,” Bohjalian writes, adding: “I went there this summer for the same reason that I return every year to Armenia and the remnants of Armenian civilization that are scattered across eastern Turkey: This earth is in my blood, and my visits are a pilgrimage. I am an Armenian-American, but only at midlife did I understand the draw of this ancient land for me”.

The story goes on reading that after Azerbaijan attacked Nagorno-Karabakh in April, the two sides battled four days before agreeing to a cease-fire. It was a brief, violent conflict involving tanks, artillery and drones that left hundreds of soldiers dead.

“In the fighting in Talish, Azeri soldiers executed and mutilated an elderly Armenian civilian couple and beheaded a captured Armenian soldier, leading a United States representative, Brad Sherman, Democrat of California and a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, to call for an investigation into Azeri war crimes,” says the author.

The author rejects claims considering Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh to be ‘an occupying force’. “But I don’t side with Nagorno-Karabakh simply because of my DNA. I believe that history is on the Armenians’ side,” adds the novelist.

Giving a brief historical overview of the region, its independence proclamation in 1991 after years-long Azerbaijani rule during the Soviet period, Bohjalian describes the current day republic as “a fledgling democracy of 140,000 people, facing off against an oil-rich dictatorship with a population of 9.5 million. Its only ally is Armenia, which is often the small republic’s lifeline”. 

“After spending time with people in Nagorno-Karabakh, it’s clear to me that the only way the nation will ever again be a part of Azerbaijan is if Azerbaijan conquers it. And despite Azerbaijan’s being vastly larger, I can’t imagine that ever will happen. Armenians had lived on this land for centuries before it was incorporated into Azerbaijan,” the author insists, adding the only dog Azerbaijan has in this fight is pride. It has the oil; Nagorno-Karabakh has scrub brush and pomegranates.

“But for the Armenians it is a fight for survival. It is the retention of a part of our homeland. Yes, we were ethnically cleansed from Van and Anatolia and Cilicia — virtually all of Turkey but Istanbul — during the Armenian Genocide. Three out of every four of us there were systematically annihilated during World War I. And so Nagorno-Karabakh is our line in the sand. It is why Anton Abkarian rushed to the front and Gegham Grigoryan traded his suit for a uniform. It is why this small country, as tiny as it is, always has enough soldiers for the trenches,” concludes the author.