The world woke up last Saturday morning to the drumbeats of war from a large-scale assault by Azerbaijan on tiny Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh Republic/NKR).
This was not a surprise attack! For many years, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has had the nasty habit of launching military attacks on the Republics of Armenia and Artsakh whenever international peace talks or summit meetings were being held.
Even a casual observer of this long-running conflict could have guessed that Azerbaijan would launch yet another attack during last weekend’s Nuclear Security Summit hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama and attended by 50 heads of state, including the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. Some observers were surprised by the large scale of the Azeri attack, which involved tanks, helicopters, missiles, and drones. In fact, the scope of the assault should not have come as a surprise, given Azerbaijan’s technological escalation of aggression in recent years. Aliyev’s sinister practice of timing military attacks with peace talks or international conferences reflects his intensive efforts to keep the Artsakh conflict as a burning issue at all cost.
Certainly, Aliyev is increasingly frustrated by his inability to intimidate Armenians into giving up the territory of Artsakh despite Azerbaijan’s purchase of multi-billion dollars of modern weaponry. Aliyev is also distressed by his failure to use his country’s vast oil and gas resources as an inducement to pressure world leaders into supporting Azerbaijan in the Artsakh conflict. As a result, the Baku dictator has wasted huge amounts of his country’s wealth to bribe foreign officials and purchase expensive but ineffective weapons.
Furthermore, as Azerbaijan’s father-and-son presidential dynasty, the Aliyevs have persistently threatened to attack and “liberate the occupied territories of Karabagh” for over 20 years. Since they have cried wolf for far too long, very few Azeris take their president’s bravado talk too seriously. Consequently, Aliyev has been desperate to take any and all measures, no matter how reckless, to save face at home and abroad!
It is important to understand the timing and motive of Aliyev’s aggressive behavior so that other countries are not blamed for instigating these attacks, which would only serve to shift attention from the only guilty party–Azerbaijan! However, there are other countries that have a share of the blame: First among these is President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey for its direct participation and support of Azerbaijan’s military misadventures. The Minsk Group of mediators (France, Russia, and United States) are also guilty for remaining silent during previous Azeri aggressions and blaming both sides each time Azerbaijan attacked Armenia or Artsakh. The international community’s shameful silence and double-talk routinely equated the victimizer with the victim, thereby emboldening the warmongering Aliyev!
One particularly horrifying episode during this latest attack validated the concern of all those who have been warning for years about the risk of genocide threatening Artsakh’s Armenians. Over the weekend, when Azeri soldiers temporarily took over the Talish village, just inside Artsakh’s border, they not only executed an elderly Armenian couple, but barbarically cut off their ears as souvenirs! Such savagery, at a minimum, is a war crime under international law. Just imagine what these brutal Azeri soldiers would have done if they had overrun the entire population of Artsakh. It would have been a bloodbath of immense proportion—a second Armenian Genocide!
Three firm conclusions should be drawn from the latest massive Azeri aggression:
1) Artsakh Armenians can never go back to live under the despotic rule of Azerbaijan, no matter how many times Aliyev threatens or attacks.
2) Armenians should not just repel the Azeri forces, but inflict such massive destruction that Aliyev would never again think of another attack. Already, thousands of volunteers from all over Armenia have rushed to Artsakh’s defense. Azerbaijan is aware that its multi-billion dollar oil fields and pipelines are in easy reach of Armenia’s long-range missiles!
3) It is time to declare Artsakh an inseparable part of the Republic of Armenia. On April 4, Armenia’s President Serge Sarkisian told foreign ambassadors in Yerevan that if the hostilities continued and escalated, Armenia would “recognize Karabagh’s independence.”
The brave people of Artsakh desperately need everyone’s moral, political, and material support! The Armenia Artsakh Fund of Glendale in California gratefully welcomes your contributions to be able to ship millions of dollars of urgently needed medicines and medical supplies the fund has already collected. Please send your tax-deductible donations to Armenia Artsakh Fund, 1101 N. Pacific Ave., #204, Glendale, CA 91202. For more information, e-mail sassoun@pacbell.net or call (818) 241-8900.
Harut Sassounian
Thanks for the address, Mr. Sassounian.
There are a lot of addresses and bank numbers floating around.
Wasn’t sure which are legit.
My donation will go out today.
EVERYBODY, particularly those of our compatriots who make various exhortations on the comment pages of ArmenianWeekly.
No need to go to the LoC: we can all help with cold, hard cash.
Now is the time to give tangible help.
Give as much or as little as you can.
But give: people of Artsakh need to know the Armenian Nation throughout the world is behind them.
Their KIA sons are _our_ sons.
I agree with harut sassounian. this not a simple skirmish anymore. it cannot continue. it has to be fast and deep into their territory.
this article proves there is no logic anymore and a military solution must come swiftly.
Th attacks were initiated by the so called “Gray Wolves” of the actual turkish armed forces along with their pitty azeri soldiers as well as some useless afghani merceneries and with them hundred’s of Daesh thugs that left the city of Raqqa in syria to join their turks. On top of that while attacki g Artsagh … still they left behind 300 dead thugs (turks/azeri/mujahiddin/daesh).They did occupy for couple of hours some positions HOWEVER our brave soldiers kicked them out and then April 5, 2016 they declared unilateraly ceasefire when Armnians all around armenia and diaspora registered to the army. Well they can only fight against defenseless people and not against regular army. Poor Turkey and azerbaijan. I guess they didn’t learn their lessons of 1990’s. You have manpower or whatever techno….but you don’t have the brain how to fight….this proves TURKS with your thugs arenothing than a chicken. No comment.
At the end of the day, we can thank Aliyev for reminding us Armenians that the enemy is the Turk and not the Armenian government.
Thanks, Mr. Sassounian.
We can also donate through AGBU’s NKR relief. Go to agbu.org and you will immediately see the link to donate for NKR.
It is a high time that the Azeri’s are stopped, and “permanently”. Words are not good enough as we all know exactly that words to the Azeri’s mean “NOTHING”. And this is the mob that is supported by the US, Israel and all those other countries who continually supply arms. The Brits also have alot to answer for.
Today the town of Sisian in the Republic of Armenia will bury six volunteer citizen soldiers who died in Karabakh. Later this week, at least one additional Sisian soldier will be buried in the pantheon that was built for Sisian’s Karabakh heroes, a pantheon that now embraces the remains of over 50 citizen soldiers who’ve died in Karabakh over the last 28 years.
I am sure Mr. Sassounian suffered some sort of mental anguish before and as he wrote this article, but unfortunately it is the Armenia-Armenians who emotionally and physically suffer – and die. Reminds me of the verbiage of the OSCE Minsk Group and of most politicians, all having a nice quiet dinner in Vienna or some other comfortable surrounding as the already seriously deprived Armenian-Armenians suffer even greater hardships.
And yes, anyone who wants to support Armenian-Armenians MUST put his or her life on the line, just as Armenian-Armenians do. It was awe-inspiring to see over 70 of Sisian’s citizen soldiers answer the call, and equally inspiring to see the people of Sisian so selflessly give and buy items from their sparse belongings and meager incomes to support those citizen soldiers who left for Karabakh with little more than their Kalashnikovs. Certainly more inspiring than the reaction of people in the U.S. who typically just throw money (or weapons) at the problem and hope it goes away.
Stop War in Azerbaijan
ARTSAKH HAS ALWAYS BEEN ARMENIAN, STALIN GAVE IT TO AZERBAIJAN, IT HAS NEVER BEEN PART OF AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIANS KNOW THE BRUTAL MENTALITY OF TURKS THROUGH GENOCIDE 1915,1919-1920 IN BAKU AND SHUSHI AND BRUTAL KILLINGS DURING THE KAHRABAGH WAR OF 1990’S ALSO THE NONESENSICAL UTTERACE OF THE LEADERSHIP OF AZERBAIJAN SAYING THAT PROPER ARMENIA IS PART OF AZERBAIJAN AND THAT ALL ARMENIANS ARE ENEMIES OF AZERBAIJAN,ALSO THREATENING TO ATTACK THE CAPITAL OF NAGORNO KHARBAGH AND KILL CIVILIANS,AND KILLING INNOCENT CIVILIANS IN BRUTAL MANNERS IN ITS RECENT ATTACK.THE PEOPLE OF ARTSAKH NEED SELF DETERMINATION AND GOVERN THEMSELVES, THEY WILL NEVER BE RULED BY AZERBAIJAN. AZERBAIJAN SHOULD NEGOTIATE WITH NAGORNO KAHRABAGH GOVERNMENT DIRECTLY, THE WORLD SHOULD RECOGNIZE THE INDEPENDECE OF NAGORNO KAHRABAGH AND TURKEY SHOULD STOP PUSHING AZERBAIJAN INTO MISADVENTURES. TO MAKE TROUBLE FOR ARMENIA AND RUSSIA. THIS WAS A TERRIBLE MISTAKE ON THE PART OF AZERBAIJAN THE ONLY SOLUTION IS INDEPENDENCE FOR ARTSAKH AND WORLD RECOGNITION.
It is a war crime under international law as Harut Sassounian writes. They have to face the criminal charges Internationally. Aliyev & Erdogan.Thank you H.Sassounian for the article.
Well said Avery, it is time for all Armenians to stand up and be counted by their willingness to help our compatriots and homeland. Shame on all those who preach peace, restraint and negotiation while they are quite happy to sell arms to the Azeris knowing well enough the intended use of these arms, some of which are illegal eg multi head and scatter bombs targeted at civilians.
The way I’m reading the conflict initiated by Azerbaijan was a test of the upcoming warn. They intend to attack. Aliyev has no choice. He’s in a tough spot in his country and needs to redirect the frustrations of the country towards a hated enemy.
What they did in the past few days was to try out their new weapons and battle techniques they’ve been working on for the past years. They were also listening to international reactions, particularly from Russia. And Russia has been even handed internationally about both sides stopping the fighting.
Aliyev tested his new weapons bought from Russia, the helicopters, Smerch missiles and the Israeli drones. As they revealed in the fighting, they were using a new Israeli suicide drone which as far as I know was not revealed that they had.
And they were testing the reaction of Armenian troops. And they’re going to attack with more men and hardware, probably very soon. And I would not be surprised if Turkey would try to distract via Nakhichevan.
Again, Aliyev is in a tight spot. He had been promising victory for years, but with oil prices so low and discontent setting in, he needs to save his skin. And as always, war is a great distractor. I hope it doesn’t happen, but I’m not optimistic.
I’m sure Armenian and Artsakh forces are studying the fighting from the past few days themselves.
And if they do attack, they will be hitting civilian areas hard. And once again, the world will not care one bit.
If we already know, based on numerous past experiences, that there is a consistent pattern in Azerbaijani aggression at LoC and at peaceful civilians in the surrounding regions around such International or other events, then why is it that we don’t take preemptive steps to not only surprise the enemy and neutralize their aggression but do it so as to inflict a massive and immeasurable destruction and death on them so they will think twice resorting to such violence the next time?
If the belligerent and criminal leaders of artificial Azerbaijan, the chicken-hawk Aliyev at the helm and MIA in the last war due to his cowardice, have in the past several years started to not only attack Artsakh but also Armenia herself, then what is holding us back from officially recognizing Artsakh’s independence so we can formally consolidate our forces and resources in both republics to send a strong message to Aliyev, and to the rest of the world for that matter, that we are serious in our pursuits and that we will respond to fire with fire but now with much more determination and in many folds?
I know it is easier said than done and I am in no position to lecture anyone or critique our leaders on what to do but as someone who knows the true character of our enemies whose ultimate goal is the destruction of the Armenian statehood in both republics with sole aim and purpose of creating a direct link between the artificial Azerbaijan republic and illegal and fascist Turkey, by turning what is left of Armenia into a landlocked island, I believe our enemies not only have to realize but actually feel and experience that our entire nation united as one is ready to sacrifice anything and everything to not only avoid this but to liberate remaining occupied Armenian territories to secure our rightful existence in our historic homelands.
Our enemies must be brought down to their knees even if it takes nuclear weapons to make this reality.