Armenian Christians Flee Home in Droves Following Azerbaijani Takeover

100,000 people have been forced to flee their historically Christian homeland

There are nearly no longer any ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, the region recently invaded by Azerbaijan in a recent military offensive that dissolved decades of attempted peace in the region.

Roughly 100,000 have fled their homeland, which has a rich Christian history tracing back centuries and surviving through repressive Soviet occupation.

The region is home to hundreds of Christian churches and monasteries, and while it is internationally recognized as part of the Muslim-majority Azerbaijan, it has considered itself to be a sovereign republic governed by ethnic Armenians.

Although Azerbaijan has promised to protect the rights of Armenians following a military offensive in which the nation seized Nagorno-Karabakh, refugees told Reuters that they would rather flee than live under its notoriously despotic government.

Now, many fear the mass exodus of ethnic Armenians poses a threat to the Christian history of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"This is one of the darkest pages of Armenian history. The whole of Armenian history is full of hardships... The blow we are receiving now is one of the heaviest," Armenian priest Father David told Reuters.

There are concerns that monasteries and other religious sites may be destroyed amid the chaos of invasion, although no such reports have yet been confirmed.

Father David explained that Azerbaijan may now claim that many of the ancient sites in its newly-acquired, historically Armenian territory are not Armenian, but Caucasian, a common slight used to undermine the history of one of the world’s oldest Christian civilizations.

"Probably they will try to distort history, to say there is no Armenian trace here," the priest explained.

Let us pray for the tens of thousands of refugees who have been forced to flee their homeland, that they would find comfort and peace in the God Who knows no international borders!