Starting a few weeks ago, border towns in eastern Armenia proper were invaded by Azerbaijan in a devastating onslaught that included drone strikes and the use of large-caliber firearms. Armenia has already lost hundreds of soldiers in these attacks, and intensive shelling directed at civilian centers has resulted in countless injuries, damages, and the displacement of tens of thousands of civilians. Most heartbreaking of all is that Armenian communication channels, likely intentionally, have been flooded with videos of Armenian victims of brutal war crimes. Anush Apetyan, an Armenian woman and a mother of three young children, was brutalized, tortured, and violated by Azerbaijani soldiers following an attack on Armenian sovereign territory on September 13th. (Anush’s brutalization and killing is not the only instance of this torture, but her death is the only one widely confirmed by independent sources.) In the last few days, yet another video emerged from that same time period of Azeri soldiers executing unarmed Armenian soldiers.
Columbia University’s Armenian Society is planning on hosting a vigil on Wednesday, October 12th from 6:30 - 7:30 PM to grieve for the lives already lost—brothers, sisters, cousins, or even parents—as well as for those who have been the victims of war crimes during this vicious and inexcusable invasion.
