new promising era New Promising Era "President" & VP Nikol Pashinian

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Nov 12 2022

• EXCLUSIVE

 

Serj Tankian: Armenians Are Defending Their Homeland From a Brutal, Putin-Backed Autocrat’s Army. Why Won’t the World Help?

NOVEMBER 12, 2022 12:00PM EST

• SERJ TANKIAN

The same September week that a mass grave was discovered in Izium, Ukraine, Azerbaijan launched brutal attacks on the sovereign territory of Armenia, killing hundreds. The first event was on the front page of The New York Times, in The Washington Post, and on CNN, and denounced by world leaders and international organizations. The latter was a one-day story that was swiftly buried.

I was not surprised. Tired of the world’s mayhem, we pick and choose which outrages actually cause us outrage. Vladimir Putin’s Russia is seen as a rogue power — while the kleptocratic dictatorship of Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev flies under the radar. It’s understandable in a way, since the corruption is clear but the underlying issues are complex. So let me try to simplify.

Since it helps any story to feature a cartoonishly evil antagonist, I’m glad to report it all began with Joseph Stalin.

On July 4, 1921, the Caucasus bureau of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party voted to integrate the mountainous Karabagh region — today, much of Azerbaijan and eastern Armenia, 95 percent of whose population was ethnically Armenian — into Armenia. The logical idea was to create ethnically cohesive republics in the Soviet Union.

But the Soviet leader had more clever plans: He wanted the republics to not make sense, to reduce their chances of ever succeeding as viable countries. So the next day, he intervened to integrate Karabagh into Soviet Azerbaijan, as part of an autonomous province.

It was a blow to the Armenians, coming just a few years after big power machinations also ceded the historical Armenian cities of Kars and Ardahan to Turkey and Nakhchivan to Azerbaijan. In 1915, around 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered by the Turks, giving birth to the term “genocide.”

At the breakup of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the Armenians of the Nagorno-Karabakh province overwhelmingly voted to join Armenia. Azerbaijan reacted with pogroms of Armenians in Azerbaijan and military attacks on Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenians prevailed militarily and established a strong model of autonomy and democracy free of Azerbaijan’s dictatorship.

Then came 2020, when Azerbaijan, with the help of Turkey, attacked again. A brutal 44-day war took the lives of thousands, with Azerbaijan occupying the disputed territory and displacing tens of thousands of Armenians. Not satisfied, Aliyev is now trying to take over territory in sovereign Armenia itself.

Historically, Russia has been the security guarantor of Armenia. But Russia, distracted by the folly of its imperial ambitions in Ukraine, has abandoned Armenia and further cozied up to Turkey and Azerbaijan. Given the Western disinterest, Armenians feel abandoned to their fate.

Lined up against them is a particularly odious iteration of Azerbaijan: It is a country with extremely low freedom and even lower human-rights ratings that’s run as a private business of the Aliyevs. Ilham, an autocrat of the Dr. Evil variety, inherited his fiefdom from his KGB dad, Heydar, made his wife vice president, and runs the energy-wealthy country like a cash machine to buy silence around the world.

His ally, Turkish President Recep Teyyip Erdogan, is a thuggish Islamist autocrat ruling over a pretend-democracy that oppresses its Kurdish minority, invades Syria, and rattles its saber at Cyprus, Greece, and Armenia.

Putin — well, you all know about Putin.

It probably won’t surprise you that this tyrannical triumvirate is working on a fossil-fuel-energy play centered around … Azerbaijan. Essentially, they need to run oil and natural gas from Azerbaijan, as well as Iran, to Turkey and onward, to whatever European country will agree to have it — which requires a corridor through Armenia. They’d like to possess and control such a corridor, which goes a long way to explain this last invasion. Moreover, Russia’s Lukoil owns roughly 25 percent of Azerbaijan’s Caspian oil reserves — so Putin will still be in the game, even if Europe refuses to buy from Moscow directly.

U.S. displeasure with the pipeline is one reason why some U.S. politicians are trying to become more involved in establishing a long-term cease-fire. It also explains why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi flew to Yerevan, the capitol of Armenia, in September and publicly called out Azerbaijani aggression.

But Europe, obsessed with its energy security, has been far more inclined to appease Aliyev. Indeed, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, recently inked a gas deal, calling Aliyev “reliable” — which is said to have emboldened him to attack Armenia a few weeks later.

Are Europeans fine with watching Azerbaijan ethnically cleanse Nagorno-Karabagh and Armenia for a mere increase of one percent of their energy needs from dictator Aliyev of Azerbaijan? I don’t think so. Maybe most are unaware.

They should ask the Lemkin Institute, Human Rights Watch, and other watchdog organizations, who have recently raised red flags on Azerbaijan’s genocidal acts toward Armenians. Azerbaijan is a country where kids are raised from a young age to hate Armenians, which may explain the multiple recent videos of extra-judicial killings of POWs by Azeri soldiers, coupled with unspeakable mutilations of Armenian soldiers and civilians.

Azerbaijan has become an international pariah for many travelers who have visited Nagorno-Karabagh, including Anthony Bourdain, whom I had the privilege of taking to Armenia in 2017 for CNN’s Parts Unknown. Tony had nothing but disdain for the likes of Aliyev, Erdogan, and Putin. I had warned him of being blacklisted; his reaction was something along the lines of “I don’t give a ***.”

It turns out neither do most others — but in the opposite way.

I was recently told that due to coverage of the war in Ukraine and the protests in Iran, media companies don’t have bandwidth for other international human-rights tragedies. But exclusive empathy for the victims of our accepted international enemies is hypocritical.

While all this is going on, international soccer games are played in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, Formula 1 races are scheduled there for next spring, and theaters and music venues are booked with international acts.

We should take our example from a few brave Ukrainians, like pop star Max Barskih, who canceled his gig, declaring that “any country that allows aggression against another country is not a place for my concerts.” Or Ukrainian singer Tina Karol, who followed suit by canceling her own show in Baku and posting “Armenian Lives Matter” on Instagram. I’m grateful for such acts of solidarity.

It’s time to cancel and sanction Azerbaijan, adding it to the list of countries committing gross human-rights violations and war crimes in our lifetime. Never again — right?

Serj Tankian is an Armenian American singer, musician, songwriter, and activist.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/serj-tankian-system-of-a-down-azerbaijan-armenians-1234613877/amp/

[Yervant1]

1945

Nov 11 2022

Send European Union And American Observers To Armenia, Azerbaijan

By

Michael Rubin

President Joe Biden kept his promise to recognize the Armenian genocide. That might have brought some semblance of historic justice, but his administration has not addressed contemporary challenges with the same moral clarity. Following the genocide recognition, for example, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken quietly waived Section 907 in order to keep selling military goods to Azerbaijan in defiance of U.S. law. The idea was that both Armenians and Azerbaijanis got something they desired. But historical justice and military sales are not something to balance, not can they erase the potency of continued hatreds. Far from bringing calm, Blinken’s continued ‘bothsiderism’ in the face of Azerbaijani aggression only encouraged further Azerbaijani aggression.

In the most recent instance, Blinken this week met Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Ceyhun Bayramov and praised him as “courageous.” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev responded to those comments by demanding Armenia transfer the Zangezur corridor—undisputed Armenian territory—to Azerbaijan or face continued aggression. So much for a courageous commitment to peace. Fear in Yerevan is real that Aliyev means to complete the Armenian genocide by eradicating the ethnic Armenian population in Karabakh. There is no reason to doubt Aliyev’s intent. The legal issues driving the territorial conflict are complex. Polemics and twitter sloganeering by Washington think tankers parroting Azerbaijani caviar diplomacy talking points do U.S. policymakers, Azerbaijan or Armenia no favors.

So how then to advance peace and security?

Earlier this week, Nikol Pashinian, Armenia’s democratically-elected though flawed prime minister, made public a proposal “to create a demilitarized zone around Nagorno-Karabakh with international guarantees.” There is little reason why Azerbaijan should oppose such a move if it is committed to diplomacy. To object to a demilitarized zone would imply Aliyev still seeks a military solution. This in turn should lead to an immediate end to the Section 907 waiver.

There should also be a role for peacekeepers. In November 2020, analysts looked at President Vladimir Putin’s insertion of boots on the ground in Nagorno-Karabakh as a victory for Russia. Many in Nagorno-Karabakh may have agreed, but the alternative—slaughter at the hands of the Azerbaijanis and Turks—was a worse option. The Russian force was to remain for five years, renewable at the request of the Armenians and/or the Azerbaijanis, but the deep losses suffered by Russia during its invasion of Ukraine make the continuation of the Russian force until 2025 questionable.

If Blinken wants to advance Western interests and checkmate Russian influence rather than issue boilerplate but vapid statements, he might consider crafting a new peacekeeping force. Prior to the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, some in Washington suggested deployment of Scandinavian peacekeepers to the region although, in true Trumpian fashion, such proposals advanced without significant coordination with the Danes or Swedes who were expected to man such posts.

The Biden administration prides itself on both its relations with Europe and the professionalism of its policy process. It might prove the strength of both ties and process by working with Europe to create a European peace monitoring force.

Beyond peacekeepers, there should also be a role for observers along the entirety of the Armenia-Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan-Artsakh borders. Many in Nagorno-Karabakh may have agreed, but did felt the alternative—slaughter at the hands of the Azerbaijanis and Turks—was a worse option. The European Union did send some observers to Armenia. These had a positive effect but their mission was only two months. At a minimum, Blinken might help craft an observer mission comprised of both Europeans and Americans with successive and overlapping six-month rotations. Here, a model might be the Multinational Force of Observers in the Sinai, which has been among the most successful peacekeeping operations for more than four decades.

That Azerbaijan has refused to allow observers should worry both Washington and Brussels. It is hardly the action of a state committed to peace. European and American coercion might change that. If the State Department is unwilling, Congress might force its hand. Like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Aliyev talks tough but knows he cannot survive pariah status. Moral equivalence does not work. Peacekeepers, observers, and shining the light of accountability might. It is time for a new approach in Foggy Bottom.

Author Biography: Dr. Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he specializes in Iran, Turkey, and the broader Middle East. A former Pentagon official, Dr. Rubin has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, and both pre-and postwar Iraq. He also spent time with the Taliban before 9/11. For more than a decade, he taught classes at sea about the Horn of Africa and Middle East conflicts, culture, and terrorism, to deployed US Navy and Marine units. Dr. Rubin is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several books exploring diplomacy, Iranian history, Arab culture, Kurdish studies, and Shi’ite politics, including “Seven Pillars: What Really Causes Instability in the Middle East?” (AEI Press, 2019); “Kurdistan Rising” (AEI Press, 2016); “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes” (Encounter Books, 2014); and “Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos” (Palgrave, 2005). Dr. Rubin has a PhD and an MA in history from Yale University, where he also obtained a BS in biology.

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/11/send-european-union-and-american-observers-to-armenia-azerbaijan/

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Armenpress.am

I am on the side of democracy, I am on the side of Armenia. MEP accuses EU for double standards

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17:11, 12 November 2022

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 12, ARMENPRESS. Member of the European Parliament Fabio Massimo Castaldo blamed the European Union for its indifferent attitude towards the events taking place in the Caucasus and especially in Armenia, ARMENPRESS reports the Italian-Arabic "al Sadaqah" center informed.

"I am deeply disappointed by the fact that the European Council did not provide fresh information regarding the South Caucasus, where Azerbaijani troops have occupied 220 square kilometers of the sovereign territory of Armenia, also committing war crimes, atrocities, tortures," said Castaldo.

The MEP saw similarities with what is happening in Ukraine. Castaldo emphasized that Armenia is a democratic country and was attacked by a dictatorial, aggressive state. However, he noticed that the EU, while supporting Kyiv, at the same time perceives Azerbaijan as a reliable partner. He did not consider it correct, stressing that double standards undermine trust in them.

"We need to get rid of the trap of gas dependence, which we get from all authoritarian regimes. Open violations of international law must be condemned. Always and everywhere I am on the side of democracy, I am on the side of Armenia," Castaldo said.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1097117.html?fbclid=IwAR2MLyxUL70grT9IlSWzM420FBLNLxb8lWFV_a_iJxjESVZoEJ3HSMw-_w8

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The Print

India - Nov 14 2022

Artillery to rocket launchers — Armenia turns to India to beef up defence against Azerbaijan

Armenian Defence minister Suren Papikyan met Rajnath Singh on sidelines of DefExpo in Gandhinagar. In September, Armenia had signed deal for Pinaka rocket launchers with India.

SNEHESH ALEX PHILIP

14 November, 2022

New Delhi: Armenia has turned to India to beef up its defences with the purchase of an artillery system amid continuing tensions with Azerbaijan, a close ally of Pakistan and Turkey. Over the last two months, Armenia has procured anti-tank missiles and multi-barrel rocket launchers, among other types of munitions, from India in the wake of a Russia-negotiated truce preceded by fighting over control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The latest equipment on Armenia’s shopping list is the mounted 155mm 39-calibre artillery system manufactured by Bharat Forge, a private defence firm part of Pune-based conglomerate Kalyani Group. This will be the first artillery order for Kalyani Group — the maker of multiple indigenous gun systems yet to be procured by the Army.

While the Kalyani Group maintains that the USD 155 million (over Rs 1,200 crore) order is for a “non-conflict zone”, sources in the defence establishment have now identified Armenia as the buyer. The gun systems will be manufactured at Kalyani Group’s facility in Pune and delivered to the buyer in phases over the next three years.

But this is not the first time Armenia has bought Indian defence systems. In September this year, Yerevan signed a government-to-government contract with New Delhi for the indigenous Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles and ammunition.ds

Armenian Defence minister Suren Papikyan even met his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh on the sidelines of the DefExpo held in Gandhinagar last month, looking to expand defence cooperation with India. ThePrint had reported then that Armenia was eyeing more defence deals with India including procurement of drones, counter-drone measures and loitering munitions, besides mid-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems like the Akash developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The ex-Soviet republic had bought four indigenous ‘Swathi’ weapon-locating radars from India in 2020, which were delivered in the backdrop of its renewed conflict with Azerbaijan.

Revisiting the conflict, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian Monday accused Azerbaijan of “shooting civilians” doing farm work in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan-Turkey-Pakistan axis

The Government of India has been wary of speaking on defence cooperation with Armenia owing to the former Soviet republic’s strained ties with Azerbaijan, seen by many as part of an emerging axis alongside Turkey and Pakistan. Observers have pointed out that, despite their physical distance, an “indirect linkage” has emerged between Armenia-Azerbaijan and India-Pakistan in recent years.

In 2017, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan issued a joint statement establishing security cooperation and building further on previous bilateral military aid arrangements. Azerbaijan later deployed Turkish drones in the 44-day war against Armenia in 2020, and is believed to be in talks with Pakistan to buy the JF-17 fighter aircraft.

In September 2021, the three countries also launched an eight-day joint military drill that came to be known as the “Three Brothers” exercise.

Incidentally, Pakistan was the second country after Turkey to recognize Azerbaijan as an independent state on 12 December, 1991.

The regional trio is important in the sense that it will “add a military component to the political ties”, Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Program at the Washington Institute, was quoted as saying by Arab News in 2021.

In the Baku Declaration signed last year, the speakers of the Turkish, Azerbaijani and Pakistani parliaments agreed to support each other’s territorial integrity, while underlining their respective priorities. The declaration was an _expression_ of overt support for Azerbaijan’s campaign in Karabakh, Pakistan’s claims in Jammu and Kashmir, and Turkey’s standpoint vis-à-vis the Cyprus, Aegean and East Mediterranean disputes.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)

https://theprint.in/defence/artillery-to-rocket-launchers-armenia-turns-to-india-to-beef-up-defence-against-azerbaijan/1215570/

[MosJan]

BREAKING: French Senate Demands Sanctions Against Azerbaijan, Reaffirms Recognition Of Artsakh & Condemns Baku's Invasion Into Armenia
➖➖➖
The French Senate voted 295 to 1 to adopt a resolution supporting Armenia and proposing sanctions against Azerbaijan, informs the Armenian Embassy in France.
The text of the French Senate resolution runs as follows,
Demands to remove the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan from the sovereign territory of Armenia and to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Armenia;
Calls for the release of all Armenian Prisoners-Of-War (POWs) and their return to the homeland;
Suggests that the French Government, in cooperation with European partners, should elaborate diplomatic and economic measures to punish the aggression carried out by Azerbaijan, including imposing sanctions that will target the assets of the Azerbaijani authorities, as well as embargo on the import of gas and oil from Azerbaijan;
Reaffirms the need to recognize the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and suggests the government to establish a humanitarian office in Nagorno Karabakh;
Suggests the government to consider the possibility of supporting the reinforcement of the defense capabilities of Armenia.
To note, the Armenian Ambassador to France Hasmik Tolmajyan and Nagorno-Karabakh representative Hovhannes Gevorgyan were present at the resolution adoption session as guests of honor.

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https://youtube.com/shorts/CyoKM5uIB_Q?feature

this was 10 years ago - get ready for new one

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this was a year ago

 

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https://fb.watch/gPIifKE5Mu/

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https://youtube.com/shorts/Qh8RbdW4Uk4?feature=share

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NEWS.am

Armenia - Nov 15 2022

French Senator: Are the lives of Armenians worth less than the lives of Ukrainians?

19:26, 15.11.2022

The French Senate is discussing a resolution on sanctions against Azerbaijan.

France cannot leave Armenia alone with its misfortune, Senator Bruno Retailleau, who introduced the initiative, said when opening the discussion.

The senator recalled Azerbaijan's aggression against the sovereign territory of Armenia and compared the situation to the Ukrainian events.

The senator questioned his colleagues if the sovereignty of Armenia is worth less than the sovereignty of Ukraine and if their lives are worth less than the lives of Ukrainians.

Bruno Retaileau recalled that many sanctions have been adopted against Russia. And no sanctions against Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Retaileau asked if Europe had forgotten its values. This is not a local conflict, this is an element of Turkish imperialism, pan-Turkism, the Senator stressed, stating that the Armenian people that survived the genocide found themselves in a tragic lonely situation.

The resolution stipulates sanctions against Azerbaijan, immediate withdrawal of Azerbaijani troops from Armenia, fulfillment of ceasefire agreements in accordance with the statement of November 9, 2020, assistance to all the initiatives aimed at achieving lasting peace between the two countries.

https://news.am/eng/news/730377.html

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NEWS.am

Armenia - Nov 21 2022

International organization of Francophonie adopts resolution expressing support for Armenia

11:56, 21.11.2022

As a result of the 18th summit of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF) held in Djerba, Tunisia, a number of documents were adopted Sunday, including the resolution "On crisis situations in the Francophonie area, their overcoming and strengthening of peace," by which the member countries express their support to and solidarity with Armenia.

In particular, the resolution expresses solidarity with OIF member Armenia and, in this context, expresses deep concern regarding the recent military escalation—that is, Azerbaijan's aggression against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Armenia—especially the resulting violations of international law, territorial integrity, and international humanitarian law.

OIF encourages the parties, together with international partners, to exert their best efforts towards a negotiated, peaceful, and lasting settlement of the problems, respecting the principles of international law, including territorial integrity and the inviolability of international borders, in accordance with the UN Charter, and calls for strict adherence to the ceasefire.

The OIF resolution emphasizes the importance of avoiding a new escalation, and calls for the full implementation of the tripartite declaration of November 9, 2020, and welcomes the efforts being made toward the peaceful and fair settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The resolution reflects on humanitarian issues, too. The OIF expresses its concern regarding the unresolved humanitarian issues, particularly regarding the fate of prisoners of war and other detainees as well as missing persons.

Also, OIF expresses concern about the destruction of cultural heritage, and supports the implementation of the UNESCO mission to Nagorno-Karabakh and neighboring areas.

With the Djerba Declaration of La Francophonie, the OIF member countries thanked Armenia for chairing the La Francophonie Summit for the past four years, and expressed their solidarity with Armenia in the context of the security challenges that the country is facing.

https://news.am/eng/news/731201.html

[Yervant1]

Armenians Need to Assess French Senate’s

Positive Resolution Cool-Headedly

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

Throughout their long history, Armenians have always expected that some foreign power would rescue them from their enemies. Over the centuries, they hoped for assistance from the Romans, Byzantines, Russians, French, Americans, and now Iranians. But, no one has ever come to save them. One would think that after such a long string of disappointments, Armenians would finally learn the lesson that no one will rescue them. They need to save themselves.

Given such unrealistic expectations, Armenians keep going from one potential rescuer to another, attempting to find anyone that would assist them. No one helped save the Armenians when Ottoman Turkey was committing genocide against them; no one saved them when the survivors returned to Cilicia only to be attacked and killed by Ataturk’s armies; no one helped them in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s when Azeris were massacring Armenians in Artsakh; and no one helped Armenians when Azeris with the support of Jihadist terrorists, Israel and Turkey conquered most of Artsakh, killing and maiming thousands of Armenian soldiers and civilians.

After all of these disappointing experiences, Armenians were hoping that Russia would step in and save Artsakh. When that didn’t happen, Armenians loudly complained that Russia had betrayed them. Armenians kept demanding that the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) protect Armenia from repeated Azeri encroachments on its borders.

Armenians don’t seem to understand that each nation’s priority is to defend its own national interest, not that of Armenia. No one is obliged to help Armenia, even when a treaty of mutual defense is signed, which is viewed as a mere “a piece of paper.” Rather than abandoning their unrealistic expectations, Armenians have now turned to France and the United States hoping they would come to their rescue!

It is encouraging that in recent months Armenia signed contracts with India to purchase a large number of missiles and artillery. Finally, the Armenian Government is realizing that it needs to defend the country rather than rely on the mercy of others.

Last week, Armenians around the world were elated that the French Senate adopted a pro-Armenian resolution. However, Armenians should neither exaggerate nor minimize the significance of this resolution. The French Armenian community has carried out commendable lobbying activities for many years to create such a sympathetic atmosphere about Armenians and Armenia. That is the main reason why this resolution was adopted by the French Senate with the near unanimous vote of 295 in favor and one against.

The comprehensive French resolution strongly condemned Azerbaijan’s invasion of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia and demanded:

– The immediate withdrawal of Azeri forces from Armenia;

– The release of all Armenian prisoners of war held by Baku since the 2020 war;

– The preservation of Armenian cultural and religious monuments;

– That the French government with the United Nations Security Council refer Azerbaijan’s aggression to the International Criminal Court;

– That France sanctions Azerbaijan, seize the assets of its leaders, and place an embargo on the importation of Azeri oil and gas;

– The establishment of a French humanitarian office in Artsakh;

– The strengthening of the defense capability of Armenia;

– The deployment of an interposition force under the aegis of the international community;

– The recognition of the Nagorno Karabagh (Artsakh) Republic;

– That France ensures Azerbaijan engages in peaceful negotiation with Armenia to establish a lasting peace.

Azerbaijan reacted harshly and condemned the French Senate for adopting this resolution. By taking counter-measures, Azerbaijan risks disrupting its diplomatic and economic relations with France. However, for this non-binding resolution to have any effect, it must be adopted by the French National Assembly and backed by the President and Government of France.

Armenians need to have a cool-headed assessment of the French Senate resolution. They should not expect France to save Artsakh or Armenia. They need to continue developing Armenia’s military so they can defend the country’s borders, while welcoming the assistance of any country, without having any unrealistic expectations. Remember that the French Senate and Parliament adopted resolutions after the 2020 war, urging the French government to recognize the Artsakh Republic, which did not materialize. This is not surprising as Armenia itself does not recognize the independence of Artsakh. To avoid further disappointments, Armenians need to view the French Senate resolution as an important moral and diplomatic support, but not a military one.

Another message of support for Armenia and Artsakh came this week when 120 prominent celebrities and intellectuals issued a joint statement in the French “Le Figaro Magazine,” including Claudia Cardinale, Gerard Chaliand, Costa-Gavras, Alain Delon, Bernard-Henri Levy, Yves Ternon, etc. They wrote: “More than a century after the perpetration of the genocide of Armenians by the Ottoman leaders in 1915, the same people are once again victims of two authoritarian regimes which, in Baku as in Ankara, provoke inter-ethnic hatred to endow their unchallenged power with a bloody new trophy….”

It is now up to the Armenian Government and Armenians around the world to see to it that the French Senate resolution and the statement of the 120 celebrities are used to provide additional support for Armenians in Armenia and Artsakh.

[Yervant1]

The Print

Nov 22 2022

Azerbaijan’s war against Armenia matters as much as Russia-Ukraine. India must stand with Yerevan

Historical prejudice has made the world ignore Azerbaijan's war in Armenia. Delhi must train Yerevan's armed forces.

KAPIL KOMIREDDI

Were you ever taken in by the Western preachers of peace who hectored India for refusing to reprimand Russia after its invasion of Ukraine? If so, you ought to familiarise yourself with the plight of Armenia—an unlikely post-Soviet democracy in the South Caucasus whose survival is being imperilled by the mercenarism of our Occidental missionaries of international order. Their impulse to punish Russia for waging war against Ukraine has prompted them to reward Azerbaijan, a spectacularly corrupt hereditary dictatorship at war with Armenia.

The European Union “is turning to trustworthy energy suppliers. Azerbaijan is one of them,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, declared in July. Weeks after she flew home, Europe’s newly emboldened partner proceeded to slaughter more than 200 Armenians in a fresh episode of a protracted pan-Turkic campaign to coerce Armenia into complete submission. There was much noise in the West, but no meaningful intervention was staged to aid Armenia, a state that—for all its ills—ranks as less corrupt on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index than at least five EU states and eight NATO members.

“Universal” principles are for the weak: Cold self-interest disguised as altruism governs the West’s own conduct on the international stage. Europe has decided, autonomously or under American pressure, to emancipate itself from Russian sources of energy. And it has chosen Azerbaijan as an alternative supplier. It does not matter that Azerbaijan is also waging its own revanchist war against a sovereign neighbour—or even that it is more despotic, illiberal, and repressive than Russia. What matters is that Azerbaijan is not Russia. It does not matter that Armenians have endured centuries of mass murder, death marches, forced conversion, and deportation and displacement from their natal lands by the Turks and the Azeris—the word genocide was, in fact, invented by the Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944 to convey the scale of the concerted liquidation of 1.5 million Armenians by Turkey between 1915 and 1921. What matters is that Armenian lives do not much matter.

A troubled history

A historically alert person may detect in the indifference to Armenians the residues of an ancient prejudice. Armenians, escaping oppression and pogroms over the centuries, dispersed across the world. They received a warm welcome in many parts of Asia and repaid that welcome with a disproportionate contribution to their host societies: India, with which Armenia has had relations for nearly 2,000 years, is among the nations enriched by the Armenian diaspora.

In other places, however, Armenians’ ingenuity and adaptability bred contempt for them. They were branded “eastern Jews” and treated with suspicion and scorn. A minor unpleasant personal experience with an individual in the 1920s drove George Orwell to generalise that he “saw the force of the proverb ‘Trust a snake before a Jew and a Jew before a Greek, but don’t trust an Armenian’.” Memos by British Foreign Office officials of the time such as D’Arcy Godolphin Osborne hiss with a deep racist hatred of Armenians. Having incited the Armenians to fight the Soviets with false assurances of support, the British abruptly abandoned them. As early as 1920, Osborne’s boss, Lord Curzon, admitted privately that “we intend to do as little as we can for Armenia”.

This tradition of apathy, disdain, and betrayal helps clarify why Ilham Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan, felt sufficiently confident last week to brag openly that he had “started the Second Karabakh War.” Aliyev was alluding to the 44-day war in 2020 over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The region, inhabited by Armenians for longer than a millennium and replete with their monasteries, sought to join Soviet Armenia in the aftermath of the Red Army’s invasion. On 4 July 1921, the Caucasian Bureau of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union voted to approve the merger. The next day, however, disregarding demography and democracy, Joseph Stalin gifted Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan.

Then, in 1988, nearly seven decades after Stalin’s ukase, the local Armenians held a referendum to secede from Azerbaijan. The vote went largely unrecognised, and hundreds of Armenians were massacred in the Azeri cities of Sumgait and Baku. And so, when the USSR finally disintegrated, Karabakh found itself inside the Soviet-drawn frontiers inherited by Azerbaijan. A vicious trench war erupted in the mountainous terrain. Armenia, plunged into literal darkness by acute power shortages, captured Nagorno-Karabakh and the adjoining lands. It was the first major Armenian victory on its own soil in a thousand years.

An international forum called the OSCE Minsk Group was convened in 1992 to enable the belligerents to negotiate a final settlement. Its progress was impaired by routine outbreaks of hostilities until its was undone completely by Azerbaijan when it commenced a full-blown war in September 2020.

Unlike Armenia in 1991, however, Azerbaijan in 2020 did not fight solo: Its troops were trained, equipped, and superintended by Turkey—a member of NATO—which also trafficked a thousand Syrian mujahideen on its payroll to serve as cannon fodder. “One nation, two States” was their official motto. The murderous pan-Turkism that animated the joint enterprise against Armenia, the world’s oldest Christian State, acquired an explicitly religious gloss with the participation of fighters from Pakistan, which does not recognise Armenia, in the cause of the ummah.

Their deeds on and off the battlefield—torture, beheadings, mounting the decapitated heads of Armenian civilians on the carcasses of pigs—would make the ISIS blush with pride. Aliyev opened a museum in Baku, the Azeri capital, whose chief exhibits were the helmets of Armenian soldiers slain in war.

When India helped

None of the powers that dispense lofty sermons on peace today lifted a finger at the time. To its abiding credit, India was one of the few nations that offered Armenia tangible support in the form of arms in its moment of need. Three separate sources confirmed to me that Delhi had come close to airlifting a cache of sophisticated weapons, but the war had plunged Armenia into such disarray that the administration in Yerevan, operating without a command structure, was unable to figure out how to receive the materiel.

By the first week of November 2020, Azeri forces were punching into Shushi—the high mountainous linchpin of Armenian defence. Fearing a total rout, Yerevan effectively agreed to cede substantial tracts of territory as part of a humiliating armistice mediated by Moscow.

Azerbaijan wants more than disputed land and access to roads connecting it to the Azeri exclave of Nakhichevan. It wants to drive a corridor through the heart of Armenia’s southernmost province to create an unimpeded link between Azerbaijan and Turkey. Being “a defeated country”, Aliyev told his troops earlier this month, Armenia has no right to resist Azerbaijan’s demands. What makes him so certain? Well, as Aliyev helpfully explained, “The fact that Azerbaijan is right is not questioned by major international actors.”

Where Delhi must come in

Armenia is reacting to Baku’s bellicosity in contradictory ways. On the one hand, its government is preparing the population to accept its capitulation to Azerbaijan’s demands by arguing that doing so will herald peace and prosperity. History cautions against this course of action because concessions by Armenia, far from resulting in the recession of Azeri-Turkish aggression, have tended always to increase the appetites of its enemies. Nibbling away at Armenia’s periphery, Azerbaijan has already registered rhetorical claims to it its territorial core.

At the same time, Armenia is increasingly turning to India for its defence needs. Yerevan recently placed orders for an indigenously developed missile system and artillery guns.

Ordinarily, India should not interfere in the affairs of other nations or become a party to distant conflicts. But non-interference by Delhi in this particular clash is unlikely to persuade Armenia’s adversaries to keep out of India’s affairs. It would behove us to remember that the forces that seek Armenia’s annihilation yearn also to reduce India. To deny them total victory in Eurasia is to delay and foil their designs in South Asia.

Only Armenians can ultimately save Armenia. But it is in India’s interests to do more than transfer weapons to Yerevan. It should offer to train Armenia’s armed forces. Delhi could also send a high-level delegation to Yerevan to demonstrate to Ankara, Baku, and Islamabad that India is keenly interested in the security of the region.

The West’s decision to sacrifice Armenia on the altar of Azeri aggression is, apart from everything else, phenomenally stupid for two reasons: One, Azerbaijan does not have the natural resources to meet even a small fraction of Europe’s requirement; two, a quarter of the gas fields that are supposed to feed Azerbaijan’s future supplies to Europe is, in fact, owned by Russia.

India’s choice to stand with Armenia at least has the virtue of being smart.

Kapil Komireddi is the author of Malevolent Republic: A Short History of the New India. Follow him on Telegram.

https://theprint.in/opinion/azerbaijans-war-in-armenia-worse-than-russia-ukraine-its-in-indias-interest-to-do-more/1229099/

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