“The shot heard around the world” sparked the American Revolutionary War in Massachusetts in 1775, and its effects reverberated throughout the world as Enlightenment ideals shaped many other revolutions in the coming years. American values of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness became the foundations upon which other peoples would base their national movements.

In the vicinity of those historic battles, the flags of America and Armenia wave proudly today in front of an Armenian church on Artsakh Street in Watertown, MA. “Artsakh” refers to the Republic of Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh, a land inhabited by and indigenous to Christian Armenians. The republic is currently defending itself against a war of aggression waged by Azerbaijan and Turkey who seek to suppress the same yearning for liberty and self-determination that inspired the American Revolution.

The people of Karabakh held multiple referendums throughout its history and voted for independence, exercising their right to self-determination. Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov said that “For Azerbaijan, the issue of Karabakh is a matter of ambition, for the Armenians of Karabakh, it is a matter of life or death.”

Patrick Henry’s iconic quote “Give me liberty, or give me death!” rang true for Armenian revolutionaries a century after his speech in Virginia in 1775. Fedayis (freedom fighters) carried flags with “Death or Liberty” inscribed in Armenian during the national liberation movement in the nineteenth century. By the time Sultan Abdul Hamid rose to power in 1876, the Ottoman Empire was known as “The Sick Man of Europe”—a bankrupt pariah state gradually shrinking under the pressure of liberal nationalist uprisings in the Balkans, inspired by the French Revolution.

The Armenians, however, drew inspiration from the Americans thanks to Protestant missionaries who had established schools and educated a generation of intellectuals with the shared values drawn from the Enlightenment including liberty, equality, and popular sovereignty.

The current Sick Man of Europe is once again Turkey, this time under the authoritarian regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan is not shy about envisioning himself as Sultan, and even mimics policies similar to Sultan Abdul Hamid during the Hamidian Massacres by funding, transporting, and arming Turkish-backed Jihadist mercenaries from Syria and Libya to fight against Armenians on behalf of Azerbaijan.

In Washington, DC in 2017, Erdogan’s bodyguards beat American citizens for protesting against him in their nation’s capital. Had Turkey not been a founding member of NATO, its candidacy to join the military alliance would certainly be rejected today as its values are the antithesis to those of the organization. Turkey today stretches itself thin as its economy collapses while Erdogan itches to gain political influence at the expense of peace in its own neighborhood.

The World Press Freedom Index ranks Turkey and Azerbaijan closer to China and North Korea, while Armenia is closer to the United States. Ilham Aliyev, the second-generation dictator of Azerbaijan, has an atrocious human rights record and routinely restricts the country’s free press and exclusively broadcasts state-sanctioned misinformation.

Over $100 million in American taxpayer money was spent on military aid to oil-rich Azerbaijan in recent years as Aliyev lobbies Washington to sanitize its war of aggression. Erdogan continues to replenish Azerbaijan with Jihadist mercenaries and direct military assistance. Recently Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on Azerbaijan to halt the use of Israeli-made cluster munitions on civilians, a fraction of its many war crimes.

Theodore Roosevelt in 1897 made mention of how various “timid” European rulers had ignored the massacre of Armenians by the Turks to preserve peace in their own lands. Today the United States has an opportunity to play a role in the peaceful diplomatic resolution of this conflict. Erdogan challenged the United States to impose sanctions on Turkey, and America must show leadership and act accordingly.

On Sunday, October 25, the United States brokered the third ceasefire deal with Armenia and Azerbaijan set to take effect at 8 am on Monday. The previous French and Russian led efforts failed as Azerbaijan violated the ceasefire by continuing to shell civilians, but one can hope the American effort will yield peace.

The spirit of the American Revolution is alive today as Armenians fight to defend those same values. Artsakh president Arayik Harutyunyan called this war a “life-or-death struggle.” In order to preserve peace and true American values in the region, the United States and the world powers must recognize the independence of Artsakh, for “give me liberty, or give me death” is not just a slogan, but a reality.

Jano Boghossian is a resident podiatric surgeon in Los Angeles, Calif. He studied Physiological Sciences and Armenian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Image: People take part in a protest by Armenian Youth Federation against what they call Azerbaijan's aggression against Armenia and the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region outside the Azerbaijani Consulate General in Los Angeles, California, U.S., September 30, 2020. Reuters.