Armenia became the second country in the world with the highest number of new COVID-19 cases per million. Moreover, the authors note, a high number of the Armenian population had been displaced and hospitals, kindergartens, and schools were hit during bombings. Turkey’s military and political alliance with Azerbaijan only aggravated the situation in the region. The article urged the international and medical communities to pay attention to the issue to secure healthcare resources for the affected region. 

Five days later, on December 2, 2020, Mr. Tahir Taghizade, the Ambassador of Azerbaijan in the UK, wrote a letter in response to Kazaryan et al. Taghizade stated that while he understood that among all three south Caucasian countries (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan), Armenia was the one “which is most seriously hit by the COVID-19 pandemic”, he does not understand the article’s “deviation into political science and distorted history of the conflict to support their cause”. However, in constructing his argument, Mr. Tahir Taghizade also resorts to what would be seen from the Armenian side as “distorted history”.  In The root causes of the Armenia-Azerbaijani war. International community’s position on Nagorny Karabakh, Kristina Niparishvili, assistant researcher of Institute of Political Science of Ilia State University, traces the issue of the Nagorno-Karabakh from ancient times. Her article provides a complex historical analysis, which makes it evident that it is hard not to resort to political science while analyzing the impacts of the conflict on the pandemic situation in the region. 

While it is important to approach the matter with objectivity and the desire to develop a nuanced understanding of the conflict from both sides of history, it is crucial to develop a critical and rather opinionated stance on the issue. The official neutrality that we can observe from most of the international community, as well as calls for ceasefire and demands for diplomatic communication, have not been effective in stabilizing the region. The Nagorno-Karabakh issue goes beyond the scope of the conflict between two nations. In the presence of multiple clashing interests and historically or politically constructed arguments, ordinary people are crushed by the horrors of war during a global pandemic.