A Modest Proposal: $1 Billion for Armenian Christians, to End Azeri Muslim Ethnic Cleansing
Lady Cox and Our Lady, Queen of the Holy Rosary, a Dynamic Duo
Baroness Caroline Anne Cox of Queensbury1 is in Washington this week for a cause she has made her own — to bring an end to the ethnic cleansing of the small population of Armenian Christians whom Stalin exiled to the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, tucked between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Since last December 12, Azerbaijan has blockaded the region, then inhabited by some 120,000 souls, which as Time reported, is “the oldest continuously inhabited Armenian homeland, dotted with Armenian churches and monasteries and monuments predating the spread of Christianity to Europe by decades.”
The quotes Baroness Cox read last night at the Capitol Hill Club from the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, stating, in most inelegant terms, his purpose and rationale for this ethnic cleansing were bonechilling.
Armenia became the first Christian nation in the world, declaring Christianity its official religion in 301 A.D.
Shockingly, last night the former Nagorno-Karabakh Health Minister reported that the population in his country had, since last December, been reduced to just 50 people, largely elderly infirm who cannot leave — the ethnic cleansing nearly complete, many fleeing for their lives to Armenia if they manage to escape a savage end in Azerbaijan.
That the world sits idly by as this genocide happens shows we have almost no spiritual pulse. And, while economic interests are important, spiritual capital is far more consequential to the future of the world — countless seemingly intractable problems persisting for want of spiritual capital.
As Baroness Cox makes her rounds in Washington the next few days, it is my prayer that she finds a spiritual pulse.
And, while everyone is wringing their hands over Ukraine, which is bad, the genocide of Christians in Azerbaijan is nearly complete. Up next: Armenia. But, this first genocide is, of course, not quite complete: Fifty souls still living, who can be rescued, and all their nation needs is $1 billion to protect themselves and to rebuild.
If U.S. can send in excess of $100 billion to Ukraine, surely we can send $1 billion to Armenia to save the suffering Christians there.
By the way, the reason the Baroness came to America is that the British government has totally turned a deaf ear to her pleas.
God speed Lady Cox!
And, do the right thing, Speaker Johnson with your power of the purse. Propose $1 billion for the Christians of Nagorno-Karabakh, if only to put this genocide on the radar and tell the world, “This will not stand.”
If America sent but a fraction, it would show, we do have a spiritual pulse.
It would also show, we have a clue, and recognize what is at work in this and other hot spots in the world now. Namely, a redo of the Battle of Lepanto, a great naval battle, the last between oared ships, that took place on October 7, 1571 under the command of Don Juan of Austria, in which smaller Christian forces, largely from Spain, Venice and Genoa, counterintuitively defeated the Ottoman Turks, the world’s most powerful navy, abetted by 12,000-15,000 enslaved Christian rowers — a decisive victory that made the Holy Roman Empire the world’s ruling power by preventing the Islamic invasion of Europe. If not for that victory, Western civilization would have ended.
That time, another Lady, Our Lady, Queen of the Holy Rosary, was the key player. Praying the Holy Rosary to Our Lady, asking for her, the Mother of God’s, intercession, the Christians won, and Pope Pius V declared that day the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, alternatively known as Our Lady of Victory.
Yes, wise up and do the right thing, all you proponents and would-be-protectors of Western civilization. And, rescue the Christians of Azerbaijan to signal to the world — We get it! — and to these suffering souls — We’ve got your back!
Mary Claire Kendall is author of Oasis: Conversion Stories of Hollywood Legends, published in Madrid under the title También Dios pasa por Hollywood. She has completed a biography about Betty Hutton, as well Oasis II, featuring six more legends of Hollywood, and is currently writing a book about the life of Ernest Hemingway viewed through the prism of faith due to be published in late 2024.
“Caroline Anne Cox, Baroness Cox, FRCS FRCN (born Caroline Anne McNeill Love; born 6 July 1937) is a cross-bench member of the British House of Lords. She is also the founder of an organisation called Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART).[1] Cox was created a Life Peer in 1982 and was a deputy speaker of the House of Lords from 1985 to 2005, as well as being a minister in government. She was also a Baroness-in-Waiting to Queen Elizabeth II. She was Founder Chancellor of Bournemouth University, Chancellor of Liverpool Hope University from 2006 to 2013, and is an Hon. Vice President of the Royal College of Nursing. She was a founder Trustee of MERLIN Medical Emergency Relief International.[2]”
Source: Wikipedia