Blog: A spotlight on Armenia
When School Captain, Georgia welcomed everyone back to Term 4 at our Principal’s Assembly this week, she also took the opportunity to talk about war in a country that holds a special place in her heart: Armenia.
Following on from what Dr Scott suggested at the end of last term, I hope everyone had a lovely, relaxing, Covid-safe break. I hope you took time to wind down and take a break, not only from schoolfriends, but also from technology.
Unfortunately for me, it’s been hard to detach from social media and the online world, even though I’ve tried my best to do so. During the holidays, many of you will have seen news of the US presidential elections or Donald Trump testing positive for Covid-19 in your social media feeds, but mine looked slightly different. The world means different things to different people. And right now, my world looks different to most of yours because all I’ve been able to see on my social media feed is news about the war that has broken out on Armenia’s borders.
Yet again, Armenia finds itself in a position of having to defend its borders against a hostile neighbour, Azerbaijan. The region has seen the deadliest escalation in violence for the past 30 years. The Azerbaijani military began attacks on the Republic of Armenia’s sovereign borders, specifically Artsakh (or Nagorno-Karabakh), an independent state of indigenous Armenian people. This proved to be the start of what has been two weeks of relentless drone, tank and artillery attacks orchestrated by Azerbaijan and countered by Armenia, resulting in hundreds of deaths.
As for all Armenians, this is an issue that is incredibly close to my heart. It’s why I wanted to share this with you so that you could understand some of the challenges I’ve experienced in my world over the past few weeks.
As students in School House will know, I am passionate about doing all I can to help the people of Armenia. Together, we have raised money for the Children of Armenia Fund to help support children impacted by the effects of poverty, COVID-19 and now war. What this has taught me as a young woman living in Australia is that despite the challenges of COVID-19, we live a privileged life. And yet, our everyday can still be challenged and what we need to overcome this are strength and courage – two core values of our School. In the coming months, I hope to share more about this matter with you.
As young Renaissance women, we need to be globally aware. We need to understand the issues that are currently impacting people, communities and countries around the world. And we need to foster our understanding about these issues, as we are the generation that can change the world.
Thank you.
Georgia (Year 11)
School Captain 2020/2012