Steven Sahiounie
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Sarkis Kassargian expert analysis
Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
Today, violent clashes broke out between Armenia and Azerbajian, which left four of Azerbaijan’s helicopters, 15 drones and 10 tanks destroyed. Armenia has declared martial law and mobilized its male population in what appears to be edging toward a full scale war on the edge of Europe. The conflict goes back to 1991 and has been a source of sporadic fighting over decades.
Armenian Prime Minster Nikol Pashinyan has written on Twitter: “We’re united as always, as we have been in all crucial moments of our history, when enemy has threatened our #existence, our #identity & our #values. Dictatorial authorities of #Azerbaijan must know that it’s impossible to bring #Armenian ppl to their knees.”
In an effort to better understand the conflict between Armenia and Azerbajian, Steven Sahiounie of MidEastDiscourse reached out to Sarkis Kassargian, the freelance journalist and specialist on Turkish affairs.
Steven Sahiounie (SS): News reports have surfaced that Turkey has been sending Syrian terrorists to Azerbajian to fight against the Armenians. What is your take on these reports?
Sarkis Kassargian (SK): Following up on the reports that you mentioned I can confirm its correctness. The aforementioned Turkish approach is not new with regard to relying on mercenaries. We have seen this previously in Libya in a proven way, in addition to media reports that spoke about a similar situation in Yemen as well.
Turkey today has a large army of mercenaries, dangerous with its extremist ideas, as a result of its reliance on fighters who have practiced takfirist (Radical Islam) ideas throughout the years of the Syrian war. Today, those have no choice but to rely on Turkey and its salaries from which they and their families live, and their families live in areas controlled by Turkish forces and supervised by Turkish intelligence (MIT).
So, you see them ready to fight wherever Turkey sends them
For Turkey, this masterful army is a political investment to press on Russia in its national security zone, then economically as it gets sums from Tripoli Government in Libya in exchange for this army, it will demand the same from oil-rich Azerbaijan as well and a means of salvation from the burden of maintaining extremist elements who are a time-bomb. Do not forget that the United States, with its strength, has not been able to control the extremists of Afghanistan who they supported against the Soviet Union.
SS: The Armenian-Azerbajian conflict is over 100 years old. What is the cause of the current tension between the two, which seems to be at a very high level today?
SK: The recent tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia has many backgrounds.
First, it is related to the internal Azerbaijani situation, and the political impasse of the ruling dictatorship there. As you know, exporting the crisis by starting an external war is one of the most classic methods adopted in such circumstances.
Second, Turkey is under great Russian pressure in Idlib and Libya as it tries to wave the Azerbaijani card in the face of Moscow, which is considered very sensitive for Russia.
The third reason is the recent Armenian activity and its affiliation with the “Turkey opposition front” through meetings and statements supporting of Greece, Egypt, the UAE and other countries that Erdogan considers as enemies.
SS: The Armenian military shot down several drones made in Israel. Do the Israeli occupation forces play a role in supporting the conflict in Azerbajian?
SK: Israel has very close ties with Azerbaijan and a large security and military alliance.
For Israel, Azerbaijan is of great importance due to oil supplies and its border with Iran. Over the past years, Azerbaijan has provided the Azerbaijani army with important military technologies, especially drones.
In addition to the absence of diplomatic relations between Yerevan and Tel Aviv, except at a minimum, there are no visits, no agreements, not even joint economic projects or political visions, and therefore it is expected that Israel will continue to support Azerbaijan.
SS: Russia is a strong ally of Armenia. Is Russia working on solving the conflict between the neighbors?
SK: Russia is a strong ally of Armenia, but at the same time Russia is also in good relations with Azerbaijan. Baku and Moscow are involved in several projects, especially in the field of energy and gas pipelines.
Certainly, Russia will not like the tension in this region, but at the same time has not been influential in finding a permanent solution to the issue of “Artsakh” (Nakorni Karabag) and has its political scores in terms of ensuring its political and military relations with Armenia and ensuring that Yerevan will not attempt to approach the recently active Western stream. In the region, especially across neighboring Georgia, in addition to Azerbaijan.
I believe Russia will try to prevent a large-scale clash between Baku and Yerevan, as for the point skirmishes, they have never stopped, and Moscow does not worry if it stays at this level.
Steven Sahiounie is an award-winning journalist
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Already the headline is wrong and shows that the author of this text is a western shill and stooge: The President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, is not a “dictator” but a democratically elected President.
It seems that the shills of EU and NATO think, “democracy” ends east of Poland and Greece. Any country further eastward is automatically denounced and slandered as “dictatorship”.
Primitive thinking! Not worth while reading!
…lol…always lovely, elegant and respectful regarding other’s ideas, especially if you don´t agree with them..I guess that if the author lived in Russia you would ask that he is shot!…an extraordinary view of democracy, yours!…
You’re it seems equally guilty of that of which you accuse. ‘Democracy’ as defined by western standards is not ‘democracy’ by universal standards, as much as the west would argue. Case in point, oriental (including middle eastern) tradition tends to an amalgam of autocratic and democratic structures.
As a wise man who’s seen the consequences of it all once said; ‘Evolution always trumps revolution’. (Well, most of the time anyway).
Being that you are German, you should know as well as anyone that Hitler was voted into office too. As for democracy in Azerbaijan, you’re joking at best. Ever since the fall of the Soviet Union, and when this country was re-founded, only one party has been in power. Ilham’s father was his predecessor. The presidency stays in the hands of one family. Democracy in Azerbaijan is illusory, as is increasingly the case in Turkey too.
Most of us consider what South Korea and Japan practice as democracy. We are not primitive, but you are deeply naive.
Well we must be careful not to “stereotype” under nationalities.
The Nazi doctrine was an enabling cult for psychopaths to “act out”.
On the other hand you are correct in stating that we should not forget.
Central Europe has a very dark history…still in living memory.
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=35191&start=6150
You are quite wrong in your assertions, “As God Made You”. God should have been more careful in creating you. He should have given you an opportunity to study European history at depth, in order to avoid superficial and erroneous assertions. Indeed, I know German history very well, being of German origin and having taught college in Germany for 32 years. Here is what German Wikipedia says about Hitler coming to power: “Die Reichstagswahl am 5. März 1933 war die Wahl zum achten Deutschen Reichstag in der Weimarer Republik. Sie war die letzte Reichstagswahl, an der mehr als eine Partei teilnahm. In der beginnenden Diktatur… Read more »
And for those who do not understand the German language, here is my translation of the Wikipedia article: “The Reichstag election on March 5, 1933 was the election for the eighth German Reichstag in the Weimar Republic. It was the last Reichstag election in which more than one party participated. In the beginning of the dictatorship of National Socialism, dictatorial means were used. During the election campaign, members of the NSDAP committed attacks on political opponents from the KPD and SPD to a very large extent. Counter-demonstrations were banned, communist and social democratic newspapers were not allowed to appear for… Read more »
Nothing of this sort happened during elections in Azerbaijan. Nobody was forced or oppressed. So the comparison between Hitler and the current Azerbaijani President is null and void. In fact, it shows that some people (especially in the USA) have no idea at all about European history, as public education in the USA is very bad, on an extremely low level indeed, nearly non-existant. For an educated European person this is a horror to perceive. As if the average US citizens still lived like apes on trees ….
Interesting account:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/09/strategic-aims-behind-the-war-on-armenia.html#more
I’ve been told I have a great-great uncle who was administrator of higher education or some such for Azerbaijan in tsarist times. Boy, did he screw up.
I do not think that your respected great-great uncle “screwed up”. Azerbaijan has a good system of higher education, Azeris are overall well educated people, Azerbaijan is a civilized and democratic country. Lots of oil, too. This is a source of envy for poor, neighbouring Armenia and for many western countries, too,because they do not possess any noteworthy oil resources at all.
Quite a few errors in this. I wish someone would please proofread
The whole article is superfluous, erroneous and awfully one-sided. The author is a typical western shill, spreading CIA and Pentagon “philosophy” in the media.
Wonderful part of the word with truly a fine mix of people…
This is true. Azerbaijan is a wonderful country. I would prefer it any time to the USA.