Turkey imperialism, Azerbaijan pogrom of Armenians and Artsakh

On July 12, following the attack by the Azerbaijani armed forces in the direction of the Tavush region of the Republic of Armenia, the leadership of Turkey, including the President, the Foreign Minister and the Minister of Defense issued a number of official statements. These statements not only contain commitment of unconditional support to Azerbaijan, but also exhibit clear regional ambitions towards the South Caucasus, which the President of Turkey, along with other officials, attempt to substantiate by referring to Turkey’s  “historic mission” in the region. Invoking its historical mission and ethnic or religious affiliations, Turkey has already destabilized the situation in a number of neighboring regions: the Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa causing immeasurable sufferings to the peoples of those regions. It is noteworthy that in 21st century, Turkey builds its policy in the region on the traditions of kinship, justification of the Armenian Genocide and the impunity of that crime.

The Foreign ministry of Armenian adds to these that ‘ Turkey’s provocative and biased stance seriously undermines the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and proves that Turkey can not be involved in any international processes related to the conflict and first and foremost within the OSCE framework. With its approaches, Turkey is a security threat for Armenia and the region, and broad regional and international cooperation is needed to counter it.’

What has happened on the 12th of July

There was an attempt of infiltration by the Azerbaijani forces to the Armenian territory, to the north-east of Armenia and the use of large caliber artillery has amplified the dangers of escalation. The attempts to de-escalate are a priority now for the Armenian governments. Armenian is working with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, which comprises France, Russia and the US. This is the priority now. De-escalation is the best choice, because while Armenia has full capacity to defend, Armenia remains the security guarantor to Nagorno-Karabakh, but war is not the alternative. There is no alternative to the peaceful settlement.

As Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, the Foreign Minister of Armenia made clear in his interview to Al Jazeera Armenia remains committed to piece and stability and will work towards the de-escalation and the establishment of the environment, the atmosphere, which helps peace and which favors the negotiating process.  Of course, Armenia is in constant touch with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, with Russia and other partners, United States and France. Armenia is trying to work out the modalities that will sustain this relative calm and will re-establish the ceasefire regime, which has been established in 1994, fully in force since then, the document signed by Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh(Artsakh) and Azerbaijan. And the priority of Armenia is to re-establish fully the ceasefire regime. Armenia also is a member of the CSTO, a Collective Security Treaty Organization, and with its partners there Armenia obviously raises the questions which concern the territory of the CSTO, of which Armenia is a part. It is noted that Armenia being the security guarantor for Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia bearing responsibility for the security, very physical existential security of the populations in Nagorno- Karabakh(Republic of Artsakh). Armenia obviously provides every support that Nagorno-Karabakh(Republic of Artsakh) people can live in security, and in peace, and in development.

The dangers of the attack of Azerbaijan over Armenia

 A map of the Republic of Artsakh(formerly called Nagorno-Karabah) is as follows.

In English, the previous official name of Republic of Artsakh was Nagorno Karabakh, that comes from the Russian adjective nagorny, meaning “highland” (literally “on the mountains”) and Karabakh is a mix of the word kara (“black”) and bagh (“garden”).

Artsakh is the ancient name of the land before it came to be known as Karabakh by others. The meaning of Artsakh comes from the 10th province of the ancient Kingdom of Armenia. In ancient times, the region was populated with Caucasian tribes and from 2nd century BC it became a part of the Kingdom of Armenia. Joseph Stalin, of a Georgian and therefore not friendly to Armenian origin, put the autonomous area under Azerbaijani control in 1922 even though it was ethnically 94% Armenian at the time, by applying the well-known rule ‘divide and conquer’. However, the collapse of Soviet Union, made unstable the existence of ethnic minorities, that were subject to ethnic cleansing by some rulers. From 1988 to 1992, the Armenians of Artsach who made up the majority of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast expressed their willingness the region to be under the jurisdiction of Armenia, as there was no USSR any more to guarantee their lives from Azerbaijan aggression.

Like the Turkish government made the pogrom of Constantinople(Istanbul) in 1955 against Ethnic Greeks, Azerbaijan government made a pogrom in Baku against Armenians so as to control entirely the petroleum-rich area. In particular, from January 12, 1990, a seven-day pogrom broke out against the Armenians civilian population in Baku during which Armenians were beaten, murdered, and expelled from the city.

There were also many raids on apartments, robberies and arsons. According to the Human Rights Watch reporter Robert Kushen, “the action was not entirely (or perhaps not at all) spontaneous, as the attackers had lists of Armenians and their addresses“.

Many victims of the Baku pogrom (a pogrom inflicted on Armenians in Baku) today reside in Artsakh. Syrian Armenians fleeing the civil war in Syria have also found refuge in Artsakh. With a referendum held on February 20 in 2017, the system of the country’s governance changed from a semi-presidential to a fully-presidential system and a new constitution has been adopted (2017). The Artsach people also voted in favor of renaming the country – the Republic of Artsakh.

The peace is possible when there is an achievement of a compromise, a solution which is acceptable to all people – to the people of Armenia, to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) and the people of Azerbaijan. Armenia still awaiting for a reciprocation of such an approach, a compromise-based approach from the leadership in Azerbaijan, because now what we are facing is the maximalist approach, which ignores the basic fundamental priorities of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh(Artsakh).

However , the imperialistic stance of Turkey, the attempts for ethnic cleansing of Armenians, and a maximalist approach of Azerbaijan government, may end up in a conflict that may involve a new war.

Photo by Nare Gevorgyan on Unsplash

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