Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict draws in fighters from Mideast

BEIRUT >> For the past two weeks, Raffi Ghazarian has been glued to the TV at home and at work watching news about the fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces. If it goes on, the 50-year-old Lebanese of Armenian descent says he’s ready to leave everything and volunteer to defend his ancestral land.

Some from Lebanon’s large ethnic Armenian population have already traveled to join the fight, according to members of the community, although they say the numbers are small.

The new eruption of violence in the Caucasus region strikes close to home for Lebanon’s Armenians. Red, blue and orange Armenian flags are flown on balconies, windows and roofs of buildings in Bourj Hammoud, Beirut’s main Armenian district, which also features anti-Turkish graffiti in English and Armenian.

Fighting has raged since Sept. 27 in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, leaving several hundred dead. The enclave lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by neighboring Armenia since 1994, when a truce ended a years-long war that killed an estimated 30,000 people.

On the other side of the latest fighting, Turkey has sent hundreds of Syrian opposition fighters to back its ally, Azerbaijan, according to a Syrian war monitor and three Syria-based opposition activists.

L eba ne se - A r men ia n s have been sending money and aid, and have been campaigning in the media in support of ethnic Armenians in the enclave, which they refer to as Artsakh. The support they can give is limited — Lebanon is passing through a severe economic crisis, and banks have imposed tight capital controls.