Hundreds of Armenian community in Argentina participated in Saturday’s demonstration in Buenos Aires calling for an end to the fighting in the separatist Nagorno Karabakh region.
The demonstrators, who raised the flags of Armenia and the disputed region, marched from the Azerbaijani embassy to the Turkish embassy, chanting slogans including “No to terrorism” and “Peace in Armenia and Artsakh”, the Armenian name for Nagorny Karabakh.
The Armenian component (about 150,000 people) overwhelms the population of the Azerbaijani enclave, which declared its secession from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s war that left about 30,000 people dead.
The wave of fighting that has continued since September 27 is the fiercest in decades, and has left more than 450 people dead in addition to the displacement of thousands from their homes.
Diana Dergarapitan, a second-generation Argentine-Armenian, expressed her dismay at the bombing of the area.
“The losses are regrettable on both sides,” she told AFP.
“This struggle is not directed against the people of Azerbaijan,” she added. “The Armenian people defend their right to self-determination.”
As for the lawyer, Gabriela Kamakian (35 years), she said: “What is happening is very sad.”
And she continued, “Artsakh … you will always belong to the Armenians, we have lived in this region for more than 3 thousand years.”
Most of the participants in the demonstration were young people, some of whom performed Armenian folk songs and dances.
The protesters gathered in front of the Turkish embassy, which is accused of providing military support to Azerbaijan in the ongoing conflict, something Ankara denies.
The separatist government of Nagorny Karabakh has strong support from Armenia, which won its independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, similar to its neighbor, Azerbaijan.
The number of the Armenian community in Argentina is estimated at one hundred thousand people, most of whom are of the third and fourth generations.
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