In 1920, League of Nations (@UN) rejected #Azerbaijan's request for membership referring the fact that it had never been a state before & appropriated the name of the Persian province; its also impossible to define 🇦🇿 borders due to territorial pretensions on #Armenia & #Georgia.
Among other contentious issues there was the issue of the status of #NagornoKarabakh. Because of the sovietization of the region the issue fell out of the agenda of international organizations.
#ThisDay Sep 16, 1976, #Armenia'n finswimmer, Shavarsh Karapetyan saved the lives of 20 people in the #Yerevan Lake incident, when suddenly a trolleybus crashed into it. While most watched in horror, Karapetyan sprang into action. He had one goal: save as many people as possible.
The trolleybus lay at the bottom of the reservoir some 25 metres (80 ft) offshore at a depth of 10 metres (33 ft). Karapetyan swam to it and, despite conditions of almost zero visibility, due to the silt rising from the bottom, broke the back window with his legs.
The trolleybus was crowded, it carried 92 passengers, Karapetyan started bringing people up from the bottom of the lake, to his waiting brother. The combined effect of multiple lacerations from glass shards led to Karapetyan's hospitalization for 45 days.
#ThisDay Sep 16, 1822, Tserents, a prominent Armenian writer, was born in Constantinople. Together with Raffi, Tserents was the founder of Armenian historical novel. Novel "Thoros of Levon" was dedicated to the tragic events in the history of #Armenia'n Kingdom of Cilicia, 12th c
His best known novel, The Travails of the 9th Century, reflects the liberation struggle of the Armenian people against the Abbasid Caliphate in the 9th century. Tserents' novel Theodoros Rshtuni is about the historic struggle of the 7th century for a strong centralized state.
Tserents studied at Venice, at the San Lazzaro degli Armeni of the Mekhitarist Order between 1831–1837 and continued his education in Paris (1848–1853). He returned to Constantinople in 1853 and lived for several years in Cyprus, working as a teacher & scientist.
#OnThisDay, September 15, 1906, Dmitriy Nalbandyan, a prominent Soviet #Armenia'n painter, People's #Artist of the USSR, member of the USSR Academy of Arts, Hero of Socialist Labor & twice winner of the Stalin Prize, was born in Tiflis (now #Tbilisi), Russian Empire.
The beginning of Nalbandyan's artistic career happened to be during the 1930s, the time when active restructuring in the artistic sphere has begun, and Social Realism started to gain its momentum. He worked in the field of graphics, painted portraits, still lifes & landscapes.
In his work, the artist tried to convey the image of the typical Soviet man and reflect important episodes of the life of the Soviet Union, embodying the ideology of the Party and following the appeal for the formation of a new citizen and building a new society within Socialism.
#OnThisDay Sep 15, 1918, the Ottoman Army of Islam captured #Baku. With the ethnic #Azerbaijan'i Turks at their side, they carried out a systematic massacre of the #Armenia'ns in the city, during which its estimated that 15,000 to 20,000 Armenians died.
A terrible panic in Baku ensued once the Turks entered the city. The Armenians crowded the harbor in a frantic effort to escape. Regular Ottoman troops were not allowed to enter the city for 2 days, so that the local irregulars – bashibozuks – would conduct looting and pillaging.
Later, Ottoman troops participated alongside the irregulars & the Azeris of #Baku in the plundering, who then turned their fury against the city's #Armenia'n population. Calls by the German officers to treat the local population with leniency were ignored by Ottoman commanders.
German independent MEP Martin Sonnebom addressing Ursula von der Leyen:
In order to break with a gas supplier who is waging a brutal war of aggression - Putin - you have found us another one who is waging a brutal war of aggression - Aliyev. 1/
Although much of the German media is keeping quiet about this, this oil dictatorship, which you describe as a 'trustworthy partner', is currently attacking democratic #Armenia. 2/
That is a quite a choice you have made, because our new best friend, #Azerbaijan, is still far behind #Russia with regard to democracy, press freedom and civil liberties. 3/
"#Azerbaijan has unleashed new brutal attacks on the sovereign territory of #Armenia. These attacks are targeted on internationally recognised sovereign boundaries of Armenia itself & were entirely unprovoked & without justification." 🇬🇧 Parliament Member
"It is not only attacking military bases but civilian communities and infrastructure. The APPG expresses its strongest condemnation of the Azerbaijan regime for this latest act of violence and extends our deep concern for the victims and their families."
"These acts of aggression have clearly been timed to take advantage of the world’s attention to events in #Ukraine & recently the widespread mourning for death of Queen #Elizabeth. Such aggressive opportunism needs to be condemned in strongest terms & met with a robust response."