On Friday, as tens of thousands of Armenians gathered in the capital of Yerevan to demonstrate against the Armenian government’s plans to cede more land to Azerbaijan, CSI’s international president, Dr. John Eibner, wrote a letter of solidarity to Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, the informal leader of the protest movement.
Tens of thousands of Armenians have gathered in the capital, Yerevan, to protest the government’s policy of unilateral concessions to Azerbaijan. ANC-UK
CSI’s international president, Dr. John Eibner, has written a letter of support to Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, the leader of Armenia’s “Tavush for the Homeland” protest movement, as tens of thousands of Armenians have gathered to demonstrate against their government’s concessions to Azerbaijan.
Archbishop Galstanyan serves as primate of the diocese of Tavush, a region where the Armenian government recently announced its decision to unilaterally cede strategic territory to Azerbaijan – in order, it said, to prevent an Azerbaijani invasion.
The government’s decision led to weeks of protests and civil disobedience by Armenians in Tavush. The protestors feared losing their villages or having Azerbaijani troops – who regularly fire on Armenian villages along the border – stationed so close to their homes.
On Friday, May 3, Archbishop Galstanyan set out on a march from Tavush to Yerevan with a group of 100 supporters, a march they called “Tavush for the Homeland.” On Thursday, May 9, they arrived in Yerevan’s Republic Square and were greeted by 30,000 supporters. Daily protests against the Armenian government have continued in the capital since then.
In his letter, Eibner praised Archbishop Galstanyan’s “courageous efforts” and argued that Azerbaijan’s attacks on Armenia are “a continuation of the Armenian Genocide process.” “The voice of the multitude you lead must be heard by the faction in power in Yerevan,” he said.
According to Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia had offered to withdraw from the disputed territory in Tavush in exchange for Azerbaijani troops withdrawing from the 214 square kilometers of Armenian territory it has occupied since May 2021. When Azerbaijan refused, Pashinyan decided to withdraw from the territory anyway, saying, “We must not allow a war to start.”
The land concessions follow Azerbaijan’s conquest last year of Nagorno Karabakh, which led to the forced displacement of over 100,000 Armenian Christians from their homeland. In the months before the conquest, Pashinyan had formally recognized Nagorno Karabakh (or Artsakh) as part of Azerbaijan, although it had never in history been ruled by an independent Azerbaijani state.
Eibner’s letter to Archbishop Galstanyan follows:
Your Eminence, Dear Archbishop Galstanyan,
May the Almighty bless your courageous efforts to amplify the voice of the politically marginalized. You do so at a critical moment in Armenian history. The Armenian nation faces today an existential crisis. The Azeri-Turkic state has already succeeded in ethnically cleansing Armenian Christians from Nagorno Karabakh and in occupying territory inside the Republic of Armenia. It has done so with impunity.
The Aliyev dictatorship now demands more territorial concessions, with no end in sight. It is a continuation of the Armenian Genocide process. The voice of the multitude you lead must be heard by the faction in power in Yerevan.
National unity is now urgently needed. We have therefore read with dismay the CivilNet report in which Prime Minister Pashinyan accuses the Tavush protesters whom you lead of seeking to “incite war” and the “de facto dissolution of Armenian sovereignty and statehood,” while acting under the influence of “drug lords, criminals and foreign special services.” No state can survive at the expense of the nation upon which it is built.
Over the centuries, the Armenian Apostolic Church has stood in solidarity with its suffering people throughout many trials and tribulations and continues to do so today. Please be assured that many Christians of different traditions throughout the world stand in solidarity with you in your non-violent efforts to ensure that the views and sentiments of those most threatened by the continuing Genocide process are heard by those in power.
Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the First Christian Nation at this time of crisis.
Yours sincerely,
John Eibner
International President
Christian Solidarity International
