LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE: Why L.A.’s Armenian Community Wants You to Pay Attention to the Situation in Nagorno-Karabakh

Last week, Pasadena-based comedian Mary Basmadjian, organizer of the recurring showcase Armenian Allstars, got serious on Instagram. In a nine-and-a-half minute video, she explained the fears of diasporan Armenians as a military conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan continues to cause death and destruction in the southern Caucasus region. “This is literally about existing,” she said. “They don’t want us to exist.”

The escalating clash centers around a region known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh, which Armenians call Artsakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave that was designated as part of Azerbaijan by Joseph Stalin in the 1920s. Its independence, declared by referendum in 1991, has been a source of struggle in the post-Soviet era, resulting in a war that lasted from the late 1980s through 1994. (Nagorno-Karabakh is not recognized internationally as an independent nation.) While there have been flare-ups in recent years, the fighting that began in late September has been particularly troubling for the global Armenian community. READ MORE