• Login / register
  • Contact
    • Submission
  • Languages
    • عربي
    • Balkan (Serbo Croatian)
    • Deutsch
    • Español
    • РУССКИЙ
    • Türkce
  • About
  • Team
  • Donations
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
  • Login
  • Register
AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز
  • عربي
  • Syria
  • Iraq
  • Yemen
  • Africa
    • East Africa
    • North Africa
    • West Africa
  • Middle East
    • Lebanon
    • Palestine
    • Turkey
    • Iran
    • Gulf
  • World
    • Americas
    • Asia & Australia
    • Europe
  • In Depth
    • Interviews
    • Opinion
    • Podcasts
      • Interviews
    • Economy
No Result
View All Result
AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز
  • عربي
  • Syria
  • Iraq
  • Yemen
  • Africa
    • East Africa
    • North Africa
    • West Africa
  • Middle East
    • Lebanon
    • Palestine
    • Turkey
    • Iran
    • Gulf
  • World
    • Americas
    • Asia & Australia
    • Europe
  • In Depth
    • Interviews
    • Opinion
    • Podcasts
      • Interviews
    • Economy
No Result
View All Result
AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion

Understanding the fight in Artaskh between Armenia and Azerbaijan

Paul Antonopoulos by Paul Antonopoulos
2016-04-05 - Updated on 2016-04-06
in Opinion
Reading Time: 6min read
16
Understanding the fight in Artaskh between Armenia and Azerbaijan
11
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The following article has links to graphic footage.

The 2nd of April 2016 marks the thawing of an unofficial ceasefire that followed the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994. Following the 1994 ceasefire, the independent Republic of Nagorno-Karabkh remained internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan despite Baku having no control over the region.

What separates this war however from its 1994 predecessor, is that Baku has had over two decades to invest its vast oil wealth into modernizing and building its military. This is a luxury that Armenia, a small landlocked and resourceless state, has not had. However, why is this small region so important geopolitically, culturally and historically?

ADVERTISEMENT

Nagorno-Karabkh is a small enclave within Azerbaijan, however, since the end of the war in 1994, Armenian paramilitaries and the government of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabkh hold other lands in Azerbaijan proper creating an unhinged border between Armenia and the unrecognized Republic.

1

The embarrassing defeat to the demographically and militarily inferior Armenian forces accelerated nationalist sentiment in Azerbaijan. This led to the destruction of ancient Armenian sites in a systematic manner in an attempt to remove all cultural and historical legacies of the Armenian people in Azerbaijan and to falsify history, particularly in the Nakhichevan enclave.

This is in the same manner in which Turkey had attempted to remove all Armenian cultural and historical legacy in its land that eventually culminated into the Armenian genocide. The Azeri’s as ethnic and linguistic brethren to the Turks have continued this policy of eliminating any Armenian connection to the land.

Nationalists in Turkey and Azerbaijan, particular the far-right terrorist group the Grey Wolves who also have a chapter in Azerbaijan, advocate for a union between the two countries. Therefore the same anti-Armenian sentiment found in Turkey is also found in Azerbaijan.

The latest destabilization by Azerbaijan has prompted Turkish President Erdogan to announce that Turkey stands with Azerbaijan ‘to the end.’ This is unsurprising when one realizes that the Azeris and Turks are one and the same in its Armenia policy. Just as the Turks killed over 1.5 million Armenians in a genocide it has yet to recognize, the Azeris engaged in a violent pogrom against Armenians within its territory and engaged in a systematic destruction of Armenian sites. Turkey’s open support for Azerbaijan comes despite the Azeri’s starting this latest bout of conflict.

ALSO READ  Armenia announces 6 month ban on Turkish goods in protest of Erdogan's support of Azerbaijan

Therefore, what else did Nagorno-Karabakh have but to defend itself against a discriminatory dictatorship in Baku?

The role of Russia cannot be overlooked though. A 2015 report found that Azerbaijan bought 85% of its weapons in the previous 5 years from Russia. This accounted for over $4 billion worth of arms trade.

These trade deals come as Armenia hosts two Russian bases. It seems Moscow is walking a fine line between economic gain through Azerbaijan and having positive relations with its traditional ally in Armenia.

Although Russia cannot intervene directly in the Nagorno-Karabkh conflict as it would lose international political and military standing whilst its fighting terrorists in Syria, it can hold great influence over both warring parties.

With Turkey downing a Russian jet in Syria late last year, and Russia having a significant presence in Armenia, it is difficult to fathom a Turkish intervention against Armenia despite the rhetoric coming from Ankara.

Armenian memories of a genocide committed by the Turks, and pogroms along with destruction of historical sites by their Azeri kin, would resonate on why Nagorno-Karabkh cannot be lost.

With Azerbaijan following the line that it is only attempting to liberate the land it lost in in the last war, it cannot explain why its soldiers cut off the ears of its victims, a Turkish tradition dating back to the Ottoman era.

Footage also emerged of Azeri soldiers parading the head of a Yezidi fighting for Nagorno-Karabkh in scenes that would resemble something from an ISIS video. A professional standing arming that is mostly armed by Russia had beheaded a person, yet little international condemnation can be heard.

ALSO READ  Azerbaijani forces give Armenian residents of border village until January 5th leave

There’s also the indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azeri forces that has led to the death of an innocent 12 year old boy.

The mutilations of dead bodies, beheadings and indiscriminate shelling of civilians has led to no international condemnation with media towing the line of being ‘neutral’ despite the Azeri initiating the conflict.

Meanwhile prominent Russia Today reporter, Murad Gazdiev, is in the conflict zone dismissing that Azerbaijan are adhering to a ceasefire it announced. He has also reported on Azeri forces using illegal cluster bombs.

#Azerbaijani "cluster bomb" that fell on #NKR last night. Patches of burned ground all around. pic.twitter.com/fMV88rt0qg

— Murad Gazdiev (@MuradoRT) April 5, 2016

Again, there was no condemnation to the use of these weapons by Azeri forces.

The struggle in Nagorno-Karabkh is one for the very survival of its Armenian history and population. Armenian’s have seen what happened to its people and history in the Nakhichevan enclave and do not want a repeat of it.

Azeri dictator Aliyev admitted in an interview in 2002 that he ‘tried to increase the number of Azeris and to reduce the number of Armenians’ in Nagorno-Karabkh. This was coupled during the Soviet times of incentives for Azeri’s to migrate to the predominately Armenian region to engage in a demographic shift as had happened in Nakhichevan. This also goes hand in hand with Azeri falsification of history to lay claims to a land that they are recent to whilst downplaying the rich connection Armenians have to the land.

However, with the near collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, Armenians still remained the majority in the region at 76.4% to the Azeris 22.4%. With the Azeri failure in demographic change, and the memories fresh in Armenian minds of the atrocities the Azeri’s and their Turkish kin have committed against them, it was no surprise they chose to fight from the grapples of its oppressors.

ALSO READ  Azerbaijani President raises country's flag over strategic city in Karabakh

It is yet to be seen how the international community will respond to this conflict, but its eyes must be peeled carefully on Azerbaijan so that it does not descend into another radical Islamist hotspot. The first war saw around 1500 Afghani and Arab mujihadeen’s fight, along with thousands of Turkish volunteers including the Grey Wolves, and hundreds of Islamist Chechens. If Azerbaijan are to follow the same policy in recruiting Islamists, Azerbaijan has the potential to descend into chaos that is now seen in Syria and Iraq, all the whilst Armenian’s continue to defend their historical homeland in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Therefore the fight in Nagorno-Karabakh is not one of Azerbaijan reclaiming its internationally recognized land, but rather one of the Armenian’s fighting for its very survival in its ancestral lands. As emphasized, the memory of Nakhichevan in which the Armenian population were killed and driven away, and its historical sites destroyed, resonate deeply. A repeat of that is now being avoided in Nagorno-Karabakh so long as the Armenian fighters resist the Azeri aggression.

Although as of writing a new ceasefire has been agreed, it remains to be seen how long this will last. Azerbaijan have already embarrassingly lost countless tanks, aircraft and personnel to a supposedly inferior force.


The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Al-Masdar News.
Paul Antonopoulos is currently a Candidate for an MA Degree, writing his dissertation on the Saudi-Iranian Geopolitical Rivalry in the Syrian War.
You can follow him on twitter: @oulosP

 

Having problems with Twitter / Facebook / Parler etc?

AMN has set up an Mastodon node and invites you to join!
Click to join now!
Share this article:
  • 2.2K
  •  
  •  
  •  
  • 1
  • 1
  •  
  •  
  • 6
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
    2.2K
    Shares
Tags: armeniaArtaskAzerbaijan
Share2Tweet1Share1
Paul Antonopoulos

Paul Antonopoulos

Deputy-Editor at Al-Masdar News. You can follow on Twitter: oulosP

Related Posts

Commander of Karabakh forces wounded in battle with Azerbaijani army

Could French-Turkish conflict reignite Karabakh conflict?

by News Desk
2020-11-19
4

BEIRUT, LEBANON (8:30 P.M.) - After a great escalation of events in the Karabakh region on the political and military...

Al-Qaeda franchise group storms ISIS checkpoints near the Lebanese border

‘Being Al-Qaeda’s number 2 is dangerous work!’ – Newest assassination claim shares common storyline

by Nick Leon
2020-11-17
0

BEIRUT, LEBANON (12:45 P.M.) - It appears the U.S. and its allies have a thing for killing the second highest...

Turkish border guards shoot dead Syrian refugees including children

What lies behind Iran’s noise and Israel’s silence regarding the Turkish invasion of Syria: opinion

by Al-Masdar News
2019-10-17
5

While Turkish troops were crossing the Syrian border east of the Euphrates, Iranian army announced that it would hold surprise...

Libyan forces claim capture of district in Sirte from ISIS

Battle For Tripoli: Khalifa Haftar’s Army and Government of National Accord’s Forces Show Off Their Decisiveness to Fight Till Death

by Al-Masdar News
2019-07-18
0

It has been more than three months since Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) launched an offensive on Tripoli to...

16 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Latest Articles

US drone strike kills top Al-Shabaab leader in Somalia
Syria

Suspected Russian drone strikes hit oil smuggling sites of Turkish-backed forces: video

by News Desk
5 hours ago
0

BEIRUT, LEBANON (9:45 P.M.) - For the second time in a month, unknown drones struck the oil smuggling sites of...

Read more
Israel deploys Iron Dome missile defense system after false alarm in the Golan Heights
Gulf

Israel’s Iron Dome system could be deployed US bases in the Gulf: Haaretz

by News Desk
6 hours ago
0

BEIRUT, LEBANON (9:10 P.M.) - On Sunday, the Haaretz newspaper quoted Israeli military sources as saying that senior officials in...

Read more
Breaking: Heckler dragged out of Erdogan’s press conference (video)
Syria

Erdogan meets with top aides to evaluate policies in Syria and eastern Mediterranean

by News Desk
6 hours ago
0

BEIRUT, LEBANON (8:30 P.M.) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday evening, discussed his country's policy in Syria during...

Read more
Tropas sirias avanzan en el sur de Siria a pesar de fuerte resistencia de ISIS
Syria

Unknown assailants ambush bus carrying Syrian Army soldiers in eastern Syria

by News Desk
6 hours ago
0

BEIRUT, LEBANON (8:10 P.M.) - The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) announced that three of its soldiers were killed and ten...

Read more

AMN Partners

You Might have Missed

Sen. Rand Paul challenges new Sec. of State over regime change in Syria: video
Iran

Sen. Rand Paul challenges new Sec. of State over regime change in Syria: video

by News Desk
2021-01-20
1

BEIRUT, LEBANON (11:00 A.M.) - U.S. Senator (Kentucky) Rand Paul recently challenged the new Secretary of State nominee Anthony Blinken...

Read more
Last heir to Ottoman Empire passes away in Damascus
Syria

Last heir to Ottoman Empire passes away in Damascus

by News Desk
2021-01-19
0

BEIRUT, LEBANON (1:40 P.M.) - The family of Dundar Abdul Karim Osmanoglu, the last heir to the throne of the...

Read more
Reports: Egypt has sent 800 troops to Yemen
Gulf

New 2021 rankings for the strongest military forces in the Middle East

by News Desk
2021-01-19
1

BEIRUT, LEBANON 4:10 P.M.) - The annual rankings of military strength of the countries of the world, issued by the...

Read more
Syrian Army’s T-90 tank strikes Turkish-backed forces at night: video
Syria

Syrian Army’s T-90 tank strikes Turkish-backed forces at night: video

by News Desk
2021-01-19
0

BEIRUT, LEBANON (1:45 P.M.) - A video shared on YouTube this week showed the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) attacking a...

Read more
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
AMN – Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز

AMN - Al-Masdar News | المصدر نيوز

Al-Masdar Al-‘Arabi (The Arab Source) is dedicated to providing the latest news and analysis from the Arab world.

Launched in August 2014, Al-Masdar News is an independent media service free from any political or corporate funding, sponsorship, or association. This allows us to report on current events free of any bias or prejudice.

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

Recent Episodes

  • Al-Masdar Podcast 16- “There is no left in America”: Assessing Trump’s transition to power, his actions and rhetoric, and moving forward
  • Al-Masdar Podcast 15 – Carla Ortiz, Voice of Syria, and stories from the front line
  • Al-Masdar Podcast 14- Allison Pointer: Black Lives Matter, the Dallas Shootings, and racial inequality in America
  • Al-Masdar Podcast 13- Brandon Turbeville on western media
  • Al-Masdar Podcast 12- Mohammed Nimr Al-Nimr on the life and legacy of Sheikh Nimr
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contributors & Staff
  • Donations
  • Policies

Copyright © 2014-2021 AMN - All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • عربي
  • Syria
  • Iraq
  • Yemen
  • Africa
    • East Africa
    • North Africa
    • West Africa
  • Middle East
    • Lebanon
    • Palestine
    • Turkey
    • Iran
    • Gulf
  • World
    • Americas
    • Asia & Australia
    • Europe
  • In Depth
    • Interviews
    • Opinion
    • Podcasts
      • Interviews
    • Economy
  • Login
  • Sign Up

Copyright © 2014-2021 AMN - All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment
Translate into
AfrikaansAlbanianArabicArmenianAzerbaijanBasqueBelarusianBosnianBulgarianCatalanChineseCroatianCzechDanishDutchEnglishEstonianFinishFrenchGalicianGeorgianGermanGreekHaitian(Creole)HungarianIcelandicIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseKazakhKoreanKyrgyzLatinLatvianLithuanianMacedonianMalagasyMalayMalteseMongolianNorwegianPersianPolishPortugueseRomanianRussianSerbianSlovakianSlovenianSpanishSwahiliSwedishTagalogTajikTatarThaiTurkishUkrainianUzbekVietnameseWelshYiddish