Promoting a proxy war in Armenia may serve the needs of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but it is a chilling echo of the proxy war in Armenia. Turkey has committed genocide Against the Armenians a century ago.
On September 27, Azerbaijan She restarted her struggle With Armenia, accusing it of launching unprovoked attacks. The dispute revolves around the Nagorno-Karabakh region, a mountainous region with a population of 150,000 people (mostly ethnic Armenians) that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but which Armenia has claimed and governed since a previous war.
It is clear that the Azerbaijanis are the aggressors: they not only outnumber the Armenians 3 to 1, but have also modernized their army with huge help from the Turks.
So Armenia’s destruction of a few Azerbaijani helicopters and tanks was most likely a response to the incursion, it claims.
Erdogan’s support for Azerbaijan is a useful distraction from his flabby domestic economy, but turns a long-running domestic conflict into a greater geopolitical competition. Armenia can only resist with the support of Russia, which has been fueling this aspect of the arms race – meaning it is only one or two steps to direct the conflict between Moscow and Ankara.
“We are one step away from a full-scale war,” says Olesia Vartanian of the International Crisis Group, a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing deadly conflicts.
While the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, NATO, Pope Francis and others have called for a ceasefire, Erdogan is encouraging increased fire and is offering Azerbaijan steadfast support.
But it is history that makes this more than appalling: Ankara still refuses to acknowledge the extermination of nearly 1.5 million Armenians at the end of World War I, and is now determined to slaughter countless Armenians.
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