"Live and create in Mother Armenia, keeping the unextinguished hope of return alive in your souls. The ancient monasteries and churches of Artsakh are waiting longingly for your prayers.".

“Dear compatriots!

The loss of paradise-like Artsakh was an indescribable blow to all of us. For us, the pain is doubled because, heeding the calls of our homeland’s authorities, we were unable to be with our people during their final days in Artsakh. It may seem that there is no point in speaking anymore, that there is nothing left to say, yet the spiritual nature of the matter and our hope in God compel us to share our thoughts on the current situation.

The complete and forceful depopulation of Artsakh is no longer a foreseen possibility but a painful reality. As a popular saying goes, not only has the “knife reached the bone,” but it has cut right through, tearing from us yet another sacred part of our homeland. The Armenian Genocide had been etched into our collective memory as a historical reality, and we believed that such horrors could not recur in our present time. But we were wrong and were confronted with the harsh truth: “Those who do not remember their past are doomed to relive it.”

We triumphed in the first Artsakh liberation war not because we were more advanced or better armed, but because our cause was righteous, and our dedication was great. Seeing our hearts and souls, God granted us the joy of a free and independent Artsakh. Instead of accepting this victory with humility, we fell into indifference and arrogance, attributed everything to ourselves, and began to squander our victory. The gravest harm was done by those very individuals under whose leadership and command Artsakh had been liberated. As a result, today we are reaping what we sowed and nurtured. As a Christian people, we carelessly ignored the many biblical teachings that delineate the paths of destruction and empowerment for nations, failing to heed their wise counsel.

However, our urgent task today is not merely to seek out the guilty and condemn them. The loss of Artsakh must serve as a cold shower and a sobering slap for our nation; otherwise, this cycle of loss will continue. We face the grave danger of Artsakh Armenians, as a collective part of the Armenian nation, becoming definitively fragmented and, perhaps, assimilated or dissolved. Today, the primary issue on the pan-Armenian agenda must be preventing the anticipated and ongoing outflow of our compatriots from Armenia, implementing large-scale programs to resettle Artsakh Armenians in Armenia—including housing construction and the utilization of their professional potential.

We were deeply saddened to learn of the illegal arrests of Artsakh officials by Azerbaijan and the upcoming trials. For us, this is not just the imprisonment of individuals but the incarceration of our cherished dreams and the will to live freely in Artsakh. Those who represented the statehood of Artsakh are now in enemy prisons. We pray for their swift return and for the return of all our captives. For millennia, Armenians have lived in Artsakh, breathing life and soul into this paradise-like region. Compared to other provinces of Greater Armenia, Artsakh boasts the highest concentration of monasteries and churches. Beyond its historical and cultural monuments, Artsakh has always been a uniquely Armenian ethno-cultural territory with its dialects, folklore, national rituals, traditions, and way of life.

We consider the dissolution of the Republic of Artsakh with a single stroke of a pen unacceptable. The Republic of Artsakh was born out of our people's free will and the struggle for survival in Artsakh, and it remains indissoluble in our hearts and minds. Therefore, dear Artsakh Armenians, we urge you never to forsake your unique identity and never let the hope of return fade within you. For while hope is the last thing to die for worldly people, for Christians, hope never dies and never puts one to shame. Live and create in Mother Armenia, uniting under the protection of our Mother Church and keeping the unquenchable hope of return alive in your souls. The ancient monasteries and churches of Artsakh are waiting longingly for your prayers.