Despite being thousands of miles away, Narek Koucherian and Serop Jejeian are doing everything they can to help Armenian refugees from Artsakh.
They’re both volunteers with Homenetmen, an Armenian scouting organization.
Every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Alex Pilipos, a private Armenian school in Hollywood, the organization is collecting boxes full of clothing, toys and medical supplies to ship overseas.
“It is a lot more than we expected. We’re grateful for all the donations, we’re grateful for all the help,” says Narek Koucherian. He adds, “we can’t sit idly by — that’s the most important thing. It’s our duty to take part in this activity.”
For many Armenian Americans living in Los Angeles, the last few weeks have been painful — as they’ve watched nearly 120,000 ethnic Armenians flee from a region called Nagorno-Karabakh, otherwise known as Artsakh.
It’s a disputed territory within Azerbaijan’s borders, that Armenians say are their indigenous lands — but in late September, Azerbaijan launched an attack on the region’s capitol, forcing families out of their homes, into bomb shelters, and finally on a days-long journey out of Artsakh.
The shelling came after a months-long blockade of the Lachin corridor, the only main road connecting Artsakh to Armenia, which forced many of the residents living in Artsakh to go without food and critical supplies.
“The last two weeks have been very tough, social media wise I feel like every day we’re getting worse and worse updates, but I’m happy to try our best from thousands and thousands of miles away and collect some clothing to send and help out the displaced refuges as much as we can,” says Serop Jejeian.
Before the situation worsened, elected leaders here in Los Angeles — including LA City Council President Paul Krekorian — held a press conference to demand more urgency from the Biden administration.
The press conference was held in front of the Azerbaijani consulate in West LA, in an area that is now known as the Republic of Artsakh square.
“I’ve personally spoken with leaders of the state department, leaders of USAID and tried to emphasize to them, how urgent this situation is, how vitally important it is that we act not tomorrow, but today, and that call has fallen on deaf ears,” said Krekorian.
He also added, “Folks, genocide is occurring today, and the world is slumbering. The world is turning over and averting its gaze.”
Recently, the Biden administration pledged to send $11.5 million in aid to the Artsakh refugees who are now in Armenia, but some local Armenian Americans, like Serop and Narek, feel that amount of money isn’t enough.
That’s why Serop says mobilizing with local donations is critical.
“We’re all one people at the end of the day, when we look at it, it’s our homeland, it’s our people, and we got to help them out as much as we can,” Serop said.
A message that hundreds of thousands of Armenian Americans here in Los Angeles are hoping will reach the homeland.