Kim Kardashian turns her publicity powers to an Armenian cause

An electrician in Stepanakert repairs a power line damaged by Azerbaijani shelling. Photo / AP

Samvel Balasayan does not look like the sort of man who spends much time Keeping Up With The Kardashians. As mayor of Armenia's second-biggest city, Gyumri, he has enough on his plate as it is – and like most middle-aged men, he is not that fascinated by the day-to-day lives of LA reality TV stars.

Yet Balasayan can boast one thing that most of Kim Kardashian's 190 million social media fans can only dream of: he has actually met her. Gyumri is where her ancestors hail from, and when she returned to the city five years ago for an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, he was in the VIP greeting party.

"Gyumri has become well known through her programme," beamed Balasayan, who is keen to promote the city as a tourist destination. "We are delighted that Kim has us put on the world map."

Armenia has been the victim of unprovoked attacks by Azerbaijan & the predictable disinformation campaign that accompanies them. Azerbaijan is blocking social media except for war propaganda.

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) September 27, 2020

Right now, though, Kardashian has turned her considerable publicity powers to a more pressing Armenian cause: the war against Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorno Karabakh, which has claimed more than 300 lives since it broke out two weeks ago.

"Please share the news," she posted on her Instagram account. "We are praying for the brave men & women risking their lives to protect Artsakh (the local name for Nagorno Karabakh's self-declared republic) & #Armenia."

So big is Kardashian's online profile that her statements on Nagorno Karabakh may have been viewed as much, if not more, than those of Armenia's elected leaders. But while many Kardashian followers may have only a passing interest in Nagorno Karabakh, there is another worldwide constituency for whom it could not be closer to the heart: the global Armenian diaspora.

Spread everywhere from Los Angeles to Lebanon, and with pockets too in France, Russia and west London, the diaspora is a legacy from World War 1, when up to 1.5m Armenians died at the hands of Ottoman Turks.

Turkey denies Armenian claims that it was a genocide, saying the deaths occurred during civil war, but there is no doubting the scale of the exodus. The diaspora is an estimated 11 million strong - compared to just three million in Armenia itself.

Since the flare-up of the conflict with Azerbaijan, the exiles have been mobilising en masse - some staging demonstrations, some organising relief supplies, and some even volunteering for front line duty.

"Armenia is a small country always at the mercy of other empires, and we have only two allies: our army and our diaspora," said Vartan Marashlyan, executive director of the Repat Armenia Organisation, a group based in the capital, Yerevan, which encourages diaspora engagement. "Whenever we have an existential issue, the entire nation becomes an army."

View this post on Instagram

Thank you @kimkardashian for always supporting the Armenian cause and using your platform to shed light on the current events in Armenia and Artsakh. Today is the day to donate, donate, donate! Every dollar counts! Call us 1-800-888-8897 or go to www.ArmeniaFund.org/donate #artsakhstrong #armeniastrong #armeniafund

A post shared by Armenia Fund (@armeniafund) on Oct 10, 2020 at 11:24am PDT

The diaspora previously mobilised in major fashion in 1988, helping Gyumri after an earthquake that killed some at least 25,000 people.

With the diaspora traditionally well-organised - some 30,000 Armenian community and church groups exist worldwide - the contribution to the latest war effort is substantial. Some $117.5m (£60m) in donations has already reached the Hayastan All Armenian Fund, a national charity.

Meanwhile, thousands have come back to the homeland to help, from LA-based doctors and trauma psychologists to Russian-Armenian business tycoons. Some offer expertise in IT or logistics - while others, like Allen Sayadyan, a 40-year-old LA estate agent, simply offer goodwill.

The Telegraph bumped into him last weekend in Nagorno Karabakh, where he and several friends had driven to donate medical supplies, cigarettes and water. At the time he was visiting the Holy Saviour Cathedral in the town of Shushi, which has since had its dome shelled by Azeri forces.

"I'm just here to help however I can really," he said. "I'd fight if asked to, although to be honest I've never picked up a gun before."

Another expat who has swung into action is IT project manager Haik Kazazian, 32, who moved back to Armenia two years ago from Montreal. When the war broke out, he put out a fundraising appeal on Facebook to friends in the Canadian diaspora, expecting no more than $572.6 (C$$500). He has already received $22,881 (C$20,000).

"Nobody in Montreal is sleeping at night, everyone is as worried as they can be," said Kazarian, as he stood in a yard piled high with vegetables, toiletries ready to be sent in a van to families displaced by the fighting,

Like Sayadyan, Kazarian has no experience of military service, although he did offer his services at his local army HQ in Yerevan. However, with Armenia still full of combat veterans from the last war with Azerbaijan in the 1990s, and also running a national service programme, he got the impression he wouldn't be needed.

Pro-Armenian protesters call for an end to hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh. Photo / AP

"My sense was that if things reached the point where they needed me to enlist, then the war effort really would be going badly," he smiled. "Aid convoys are probably the best way I can help."

In similar fashion, nobody is expecting Kardashian to swap her raunchy outfits for designer military fatigues and head to the frontlines. But back in Gyumri, her backing of the cause has certainly raised morale among some of those trying to help.

"I'd like her phone number for sure," joked Svoyan Sasun, 30, as he manned a city centre stall collecting food and clothes. "People criticise her, but when the nation is in its hour of need, everyone loves her."