Armenia needs support (France): Shameful EU and Israel
Kanako Mita, Sawako Utsumi, and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
The shocking video of a mutilated Armenian female soldier by the armed forces of Azerbaijan should be a wake-up call for the European Union (EU) and Israel. Nobody expects NATO Turkey to care given the past genocide of Armenians by the Turks and allies in the dark days of 1915-1916. Indeed, Turkey openly supported Azerbaijan in killing Christian Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh during the conflict of 2020.
Hence, videos and photos from 2020 also show the armed forces of Azerbaijan beheading Armenian civilians and soldiers. Thus it is shocking that NATO – in full knowledge of the role of Turkey – merely shrugged its shoulders because no repercussions happened.
France 24 reported (2020), “… intelligence reports had established that 300 Syrian fighters drawn from “jihadist groups” from the Syrian city of Aleppo had passed through the Turkish city of Gaziantep en route for Azerbaijan.”
President Emmanuel Macron of France said, “A red line has been crossed, which is unacceptable… I urge all NATO partners to face up to the behavior of a NATO member.”
Armenia needs to focus on the one EU nation – which is open to pressuring the energy deal between the EU and Azerbaijan. Hence political elites in Yerevan need to work more closely with France. Also, of all the political leaders in the EU, Macron can reach out to President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation – to a higher degree.
Armenia needs to convey to France the energy angle. Also, the armed forces of Armenia need to focus on upgrading its weapons system aimed at drone warfare – and other angles – after Israel tilted the military dynamics to favor Azerbaijan.
Despite the knowledge of history (Armenian Genocide) and the bestial acts of Azerbaijan forces in 2020, the EU still signed an important energy deal with Azerbaijan. Armenia needs to reach out to France and other EU nations to highlight the shocking acts committed against Armenians by the armed forces of Azerbaijan (the lady below had her entire body mutilated recently by the armed forces of Azerbaijan after being killed).
The European Union’s official website says, “Today in Baku, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson met with President Ilham Aliyev and Azeri Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov to strengthen the existing cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan. The two Presidents signed a new Memorandum of Understanding on a Strategic Partnership in the Field of Energy.”
The EU should be ashamed of this agreement knowing the recent events of Nagorno-Karabakh. Israel also should look in the mirror – for the Armenians and Jews have suffered countless pogroms and ultimately genocides that took place in the space of three decades. Therefore, Israel should be ashamed of its role in boosting the armed forces of Azerbaijan to kill Armenian Christians.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum says, “The Armenian genocide refers to the physical annihilation of ethnic Armenian Christian people living in the Ottoman Empire from spring 1915 through autumn 1916. There were approximately 1.5 million Armenians living in the Empire. At least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million died during the genocide. Armenians call these events Medz Yeghern (the great crime) or Aghet (catastrophe).”
Between 2016 and 2020, Israel accounted for 69 percent of all military sales to Azerbaijan. This includes sophisticated weapons that altered the military balance between Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh and the nation of Azerbaijan.
The National Interest (Michael Rubin) reports in 2020 – concerning the Russian Federation peacekeeping troops – “Nor is it clear that the peace-keeping lines will work. The Russian peacekeepers I encountered both in Stepanakert and in the Kelbajar district were professional. They were friendly toward locals. They let children sit on top of their BTRs, drank vodka with older residents in order to build rapport, and systematically reached out to NGOs, both Western and local, in order to establish mechanisms to coordinate. That said, their lines are thin. The Russians have neither been able to stop kidnappings of Armenian civilians by Azeri forces or their mercenaries, even along the safe-passage Lachin corridor nor have they been able to prevent skirmishing around the Sotk goldmine. Should chaos envelop Russia when President Vladimir Putin dies, the Russian peacekeepers could evaporate as quickly as they came and leave Armenia exposed.”
Since Rubin said this, events in Ukraine and the Donbass (Donbas) region highlight that Azerbaijan and Turkey believe that the Russian Federation is overstretched. Hence, Armenia needs greater international support – given the legacy of genocide and the involvement of nations today that continue to seek to crush the Armenians. Thus it isn’t difficult to imagine the real intentions of Azerbaijan and Turkey – knowing the mentality of both political leaders.
Articles within the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, and Tajikistan – are meant to provide greater security if one nation is threatened. Yet the CSTO currently seems muted in its response to the recent actions by Azerbaijan.
If the Russian Federation and CSTO don’t increase their support of Armenia at this difficult time, then the political elites in Yerevan need a fresh approach. Thus it is incumbent on the leaders of Armenia to reach out to other nations with greater urgency – while pressurizing the EU and Israel concerning human rights.
Azerbaijan is undermining the hand of the Russian Federation concerning energy to the EU. Similar to the leader of Turkey playing off NATO and the Russian Federation. On the one hand, some policies by Turkey are pro-Russian Federation. However, Turkey is also sending military drones to Ukraine that kill Russian soldiers. Therefore, with Armenia being open to the Russian Federation concerning geopolitics and necessity – the indifference of political elites in Moscow is surprising.
Armenia needs to evolve its economic, military, and political angles because events on the ground are changing. While also maintaining cordial relations with nations that have traditionally provided a semblance of security.
Azerbaijan views the conflict through the prism of land and Turkey via its utter hatred of Armenians -within the political elites in Turkey. For Armenia – given countless pogroms in history and the genocide of the early twentieth century – it is about survival.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_22_4550
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/israel’s-azerbaijan-mistake-173476
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-armenian-genocide-1915-16-in-depth
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