For decades, of course, the world has been ashamed of not helping the Annenians enough. Ever since the Turks massacred hundreds of thousands of Armenians in 1915, the tiny republic in the Caucasus has suffered a massive persecution complex. With good reason: after decades of repressive Soviet rule, their ancient enemies the Azerbaijanis started to blockade the republic. In Yerevan, 1.5 million residents are facing their fifth straight winter of minimal electricity, scant food and no hot water at all. But now these perpetual underdogs occupy a quarter of Azerbaijan’s territory, and they’ve displaced almost a million Azerbaijani civilians. Friends of Armenia’s powerful lobby in Washington, including the U.S. government, are suddenly a bit aghast. “What we see now is a systematic destruction of every village in their way,” says a senior State Department official. “It’s vandalism.”
The implosion of Azerbaijan’s government explains much of Armenia’s recent success. Five governments in Baku have collapsed in the past two years. Demoralized Azerbaijani troops have simply fled before the Armenian advance, leaving weapons and armor–and civilians–behind. Says a Western ambassador in Baku: “No one was faster than the army in running away.” To help redress the military imbalance, NEWSWEEK learned, 200 Russian advisers arrived recently in Azerbaijan.
Not everyone in Armenia supports the bold offensives. Soldiers from Nagomo-Karabakh, who have endured years of Azerbaijani shelling, are seeking stiff revenge for their suffering. But Armenians in Yerevan, probably including President Levon Ter-Petrossian, mostly want the electricity turned back on. “In these critical conditions the offensive makes no sense anymore,” says an Armenian-American relief worker. So far, Armenian aggression has not threatened $176 million in U.S. humanitarian aid. But now Washington has started sending relief supplies to Azerbaijan, too. Armenia may find that it misses the glow of international sympathy.
