To ensure everlasting peace in Armenia, invest in climate solutions
What does peace look like?
About a month ago, I was invited to speak at Democracy Today’s 14th international conference entitled “Women in Peacemaking, Peaceing the Peace,” and for the first time had to think deeply about the concept of peace. As someone who does not work in peacebuilding, I was apprehensive about speaking at the conference, first because of the caliber of people that were in attendance and second because I didn’t feel I had a good handle on the concept of peace.
Is peace simply the absence of conflict? A world without nuclear weapons? A nation that upholds freedom of speech and the right to protest? A world without nation-states all together? There is no clear answer.
The panel I was invited to speak on was “Moving money from war to peace” which frankly stumped me upon first look. Gulnara Shahinian who very kindly invited me to speak on this panel ensured that I could speak about what I know best – climate. In preparing my presentation for the panel, I really had to think about how climate justice is intertwined with peace.
It is clear to me now that peace goes beyond the absence of conflict. Peace is justice. Peace is security. Peace is self determination. Peace is a world of gender, sexual, racial justice, a world without gender-based violence, and much much more.
Peace also means access to fresh, nutritious, and affordable food, and the ability to choose how food is grown. A world where indigenous and native practices are not only allowed but encouraged. This concept is better known as food sovereignty, and goes beyond the concepts of food security and food justice. While food security refers to constant access to healthy and affordable food, and food justice refers to equal access to healthy and affordable food, food sovereignty is “the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.” Food sovereignty places local communities at the center. Local communities deserve the right to decide what food is grown, how it is grown, the systems and policies utilized to cultivate that food, and who is doing the cultivating.
In my presentation at Democracy Today’s conference, I argued that climate solutions particularly in agriculture that promote food sovereignty are not only an additional way to foster peace, but a necessity. Let’s take a look back at examples in Armenia’s modern history when despite the seemingly lack of conflict, there was no food sovereignty, and thus no peace.
The 1992-1995 energy blockade of Armenia by Turkey and Azerbaijan is known colloquially as “The Dark and Cold Years” (“Մութ ու Ցուրտ Տարիներ”). My mom recalls an overnight flight into Armenia in 1992, looking out her airplane window, and seeing only darkness. Armenia limped through 3 years without heat and electricity, forcing Armenians to turn to illegal logging to survive the harsh winters. In just three years, Armenia's forested areas decreased from 11% in 1991 to 7% in 1995.
When looking at Armenia’s food security during those years, there was none. A Washington Post article published in 1993 described Yerevan this way:
“At night, Armenia's streets are pitch black and ghostly silent, the province of animals, a few people scavenging firewood and occasional cars. Deprived of heat and hot water, people live in overcoats and hats, washing rarely. Like modern cave dwellers they live by dim candlelight, cooking foraged food over tiny flames….For a year, the situation has been dire, with bread often rationed and electricity supplied for only a couple of hours each day….‘Welcome to hell,’ said a Western resident who recently watched in horror as a pack of dogs attacked a man crossing a street.”
Armenia survived the 1992-1995 blockade on skimp humanitarian aid from the US government by both Clinton and Bush administrations, USAID, and private aid sources. In 1993, Armenia even pleaded to Turkey to send aid.
The 2022-2023 blockade of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) also displayed the severe lack of food security. Just as in the 90s, gas was periodically shut off by Azerbaijan, causing Artsakh residents to once again return to illegal logging to survive the winter. With few goods allowed to enter or leave Artsakh during the year-long blockade, the burden of finding food fell on women. Anecdotal stories like these in the Armenian Weekly display the ingenuity of Artsakhtsi women finding ways to feed their families. “[Artsakh’s women] made coffee, Armenians’ drink of choice that is always offered to guests, by grinding barley and combining it with salt….One woman, the 36-year-old mother of teenagers Ani and Babken, showed me a picture of a recipe she invented, combining rice with yeast and salt to mimic the consistency of bread.” Greenhouses and backyard gardens were a lifeline for people in Artsakh during the blockade.
Today, Armenia’s food security is not much better. If Armenia were to be thrust into yet another blockade, the chances of a repeat of the 1992-1995 blockade of Armenia, and the 2022-2023 blockade of Artsakh are extremely high. Armenia still relies heavily on food imports particularly for grains. 70% percent of Armenia’s wheat is imported, most of which comes from Russia. The only foodstuffs Armenia is self-sufficient in are potatoes (86.1% self-sufficient) and oats (77.3% self-sufficient). Self-sufficiency levels in other critical crops are as follows as of 2021: barley 58.7%, pork 55.3%, poultry 22.6%, wheat 19.7%, and maize with the worst percentage at 6.4%. Armenia’s heavy reliance on overseas imports of foodstuffs and low domestic yields makes it a food insecure country. It is also important to note that losing Artsakh significantly decreased Armenia’s food security in wheat. 25% of the wheat grown in Artsakh was imported to Armenia, creating an even bigger gap in Armenia’s self-sufficiency.
A country with dependence on food imports from overseas is not a country at peace. A country with constant threat of blockade or invasion is not a country at peace. Blockades are a form of violence. Lack of food security is a form of violence.
Investing in climate solutions particularly in agriculture is not only a necessity for self sufficiency and national security, but is a way to build peace.
Our collaborative project to build 2 greenhouses for displaced families from Artsakh is one such solution. One greenhouse has been completed for our 4 families that live together in Aruj VIllage with the second greenhouse still in the building stage. With this greenhouse, our Aruj families are reclaiming some semblance of food sovereignty. They can choose what foods to grow, how to grow them, and when to grow them. They will have access to healthy, affordable, and culturally important food. Their greenhouse will also provide a source of income, increasing their economic security.
Peace has been on Armenia’s radar for centuries now. Although Armenia and Artsakh have both had an absence of conflict for over a year now, you would be hard pressed to find an Armenian to claim we are in an era of peace. Small-scale climate solutions like building greenhouses are a small way to help rebuild Armenia’s self-sufficiency, food-sovereignty, and lead us towards peace.
Photos by Kohar Minassian | www.koharminassian.com | @_kohar
Kohar Minassian is a multimedia professional and cyanotype artist based in NY. She worked in digital media (HuffPost, NowThis, Mic) before diving into politics as a video producer with Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign and then with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2020 & 2022 Congressional campaigns.
She is a co-founder of &Roses, a women-led collective of progressive creatives, and is currently a Senior Multimedia Producer at ACLU.
Kohar is a member of Super Secret Projects, an artist-run gallery in Beacon, New York.
