Samir Wants Peace, But Without Armenians. Poor Samir! – Viktor Konoplyov

I had a virtual opponent who was “good” beyond imagination and who dreamt of freeing the Karabakh Armenians from the “Armenian occupation”. Yes, yes, my reader, this is not my typo, but a real dream that my interlocutor is regularly voicing to me in written form. And this exotic thought is not the only one in his head.

My acquaintance with Samir occurred recently and intrigued me by the fact that, for the first time in a long time, a representative of Azerbaijan addressed me without insults and outright rudeness. For the sake of truth, it is worth saying that this refers to virtual reality, because people, using their anonymity, without realizing it, create the image of the country they represent. In real life so far, I have not come across such people. Nevertheless, Samir embodies the average resident of Baku and reflects the views and positions of a certain part of the population.

Judging by the words of Samir, he is from the village of Khojaly. He witnessed the events of February 1992 when peaceful people died because of the irresponsible behavior of the then leadership of Azerbaijan. Samir admitted that he himself didn’t witness the horrors which the Azerbaijanis propagandized throughout the world for years.

The facts and photos presented by him had already been repeatedly refuted by independent experts. But Samir rejects this. And this is understandable. In a totalitarian country, resisting the usurper is dangerous.

It struck me that Samir lives in an absolutely illogical, from the point of view of world history, space. This is a convenient way of being for him – to know only what is determined by the zombie program. It seems that this person is sitting in a certain matrix and does not want to know what is out there.

His brain cannot accommodate a different view of the world. He sincerely believes that the Russians brought the Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh in the 19th century. When I parried this thesis and asked about the historical fact of the existence of five Armenian principalities on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in 17th-18th centuries, he replied that this is all Armenian propaganda and falsification.

I was honored with the same answer when I showed him numerous maps from various centuries, in which the Armenian statehood in this territory was not questioned.

Samir also tried to convince me that Armenians now live comfortably in Azerbaijan and even provided data from the 2009 census which states that 120.300 Armenians live in Azerbaijan.

However, he did not mention that Baku included the Armenians of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in these figures (more precisely, in 2009, the NKR population exceeded 140.000). And since Azerbaijan regards Karabakh as its own, it attributes to itself the presence of Armenians in large numbers in order to confuse the world community, conveying the message that there is no hatred towards Armenians.

For the sake of truth, it should be said that there still are Armenians living in Azerbaijan, but not tens of thousands. Only a little more than 100 people, mostly women, who in Soviet times married Azerbaijanis and got assimilated.

At some point, Samir was so excited with his “love” for the Armenians that he confessed to me that he had nothing against the Karabakh Armenians. It is just the fact that the Armenians had “occupied” it. And the Azerbaijanis believe that they will once free Karabakh from the Armenians of Armenia.

When I showed him pictures of dead old men with their ears cut off and asked if that is how they want to liberate Armenians, he again said that nothing like that had ever happened.

I told Samir how to build a peaceful life in Artsakh, showed a photo. He didn’t want to believe me that children in the NKR schools aren’t taught hatred towards their neighbors. That’s because the Azerbaijanis are used to the cultivation of hatred towards Armenians in Azerbaijani schools, and they don’t even it hide when publishing videos on the virtual network.

For him and people like him, I asked my film crew to interview the children in the streets of Stepanakert and ask what they want. All the respondents wanted peace and thought that adults should go to work and not to war.

From every propaganda cliché (I can’t name anything that is devoid of historical truth and existing reality otherwise) issued by Samir oozed poison of hatred towards Armenians. “Why?” I wondered.

Maybe because Armenians are truly one of the most ancient peoples of the planet that have survived in spite of everything and continue to decorate this planet with their presence? And because the Azerbaijanis didn’t manage to convince anyone in their “true” version of ancient history?

Don’t the Azerbaijanis understand that the roots living in the earth will continue to give birth to new sprouts? In Artsakh, Armenian roots have grown so densely and firmly to their native land that it is impossible for anyone to uproot them.

Numerous Samirs do not understand that hate makes them more vulnerable. Instead of treating their disease, Azerbaijan spends a lot of money on the cultivation and spread of the Armenian Phobia virus.

I suggested Samir think about it and go beyond the matrix to recognize another world. I offered him to go with me to Artsakh so that he could see the people involved in building a peaceful life with his own eyes. But, as expected, I got refused. Apparently, it is easier for him to live with the idea of a world without Armenians.

Poor, poor Samir!

Victor Konoplyov