Under a military blockade since December of last year, Armenian residents of the Nagorno-Karabakh region have been deprived of food, fuel, and medicine by neighboring Azerbaijan. After an Azerbaijani military offensive killed 200 and the provisional government of Nagorno-Karabakh disarmed, the exit route to neighboring Armenia was clogged with 28,000 refugees trying to escape.  

Azerbaijani officials have long threatened Armenians with veiled threats of violence that watchdogs warn are genocidal. Armenia is the world’s oldest Christian nation.  

Azerbaijan has shown a commitment not only to kicking Armenians out of a land they have lived on for thousands of years, but also to erasing all evidence of their existence—destroying cemeteries, landmarks, and churches. 

Armenia was backed by Russia, which makes U.S. involvement complex, but that seems fickle at best. Pray for the lives of Armenian Christians, and ask God to bring peace quickly to this troubled part of the world.