LONDON (A.W.)—The world’s number two chess player, Levon Aronian (Armenia), defeated Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) in the sixth round of the Candidates Tournament to maintain his lead.
Aronian, playing with the black pieces, successfully defended a king-side attack by Radjabov, who soon found himself in time trouble. Radjabov’s position gradually deteriorated and he was unable to withstand Aronian’s counter-attack on his king.
In turn, Magnus Carlsen (Norway) defeated Peter Svidler (Russia). Aronian and Svidler share the lead with 4.5 points after Round 6.
The winner of this 14-round tournament, one of the strongest in chess history, will challenge world champion, Viswanathan Anand, for the world title. Eight top chess grandmasters are taking part in the tournament.
The Armenian Weekly is providing day-to-day coverage from the tournament in London on its Facebook page. Brazil’s chess champion Krikor Sevag Mekhitarian wrote a brief analysis of the first three rounds for the Weekly earlier this week.
[Aronian Defeats Azeri Opponent, Maintains Lead in Candidates Tournament]
let us try to use ‘Azerbaijani’ instead of ‘Azeri’, to point out that the individual is a citizen of the state of Azerbaijan.
Turkic invaders created the myth of the newly cooked Azeri ethnos after 1918 – previously simply known as Muslims or Tatars – to conflate it with the Northern provinces of Iran/Persia called ‘Azarbaijan’, and populated by Turkish speaking Iranians/Persians aka ‘Azaris’, an indigenous Indo-European ethnos.
The purpose being to one day lay claim to a so-called ‘Southern Azerbaijan’ as Grey wolf Musavat Fascists of Azerbaijan are doing today.
(and yeah, Armenia is….you guessed it: Western Azerbaijan, created on ‘ancient Turkish lands’ – of course).
And btw, Teimour Radjabov is half Jewish, on his father’s side: who would have guessed; a chess prodigy being half Jewish.
Wow, going a little overboard here Avery.
Levon Aronian is half-Jewish as well, along with Kasparov. But why are you bringing this up Avery? What’s your point?
“True” Azeris lack the civilizational (let’s pretend this is a word) capacity to master a difficult game like chess then?
Wow Random, going a little overboard being hyper sensitive to the sensibilities of Axerbaijanis, are we ?
Indeed, Kasparov, born in Baku, from an Armenian mother and Jewish father.
Levon Aronian, Armenian mother, Jewish father.
Teimour Radjabov, born in Baku, representing the country of Azerbaijan, half Jewish.
If you haven’t figured out the reason I bring it up and the point, then me trying to explain to you what Axerbaijani disinformation and propaganda organs, with enthusiastic support of large numbers of citizens of Axerbaijan, are engaged in would be futile.
Have you heard of Cultural Genocide, by some remote chance ?
btw, did you know that …..{Armenian state was founded on the historical Azerbaijani lands. Erivan khanate, Zangezur, Goyche – all our historical lands.} (Sultan Aliyev, Baku, 21 March 2013)
So if you want to play politically correct, go to Baku and do it there: maybe you can convince them to lift the $10,000 reward they have offered for one ear of one their own, a 70-year old harmless writer – of all people. Guess for what reason.
And don’t even bother trying: I am not PC. I don’t play nice with people and entities who are planning to exterminate and ethnically cleanse my Armenian compatriots anywhere, particularly RoA and NKR. If you don’t understand the process of erasing an indigenous ethnic identity and its culture and creating a new manufactured one from the stolen creations of the former, then educate yourself.
And I don’t ever forget nor forgive vile scum who insult my dead grandmother – unlike you.
That is the difference between you and me.
{“True” Azeris lack the civilizational (let’s pretend this is a word) capacity to master a difficult game like chess then?}
Not at all, RVDV, not at all.
Unlike some, I never believed nor do I believe now that DNA is destiny.
The very idea is repellent to me. (I know you said ‘civilizational’).
I will leave Armenians aside for a moment, because I am biased.
You and I know that Jews, about 12-14 million in the world are unbelievably over represented in Nobel Prize winners (hard sciences), World Chess champions, etc.
Why ? I have no idea.
But can you argue with facts ?
There how many Turks (or Turkic peoples) in the World ?
How many Nobel Prize winners in hard sciences ?
How many World chess champions ?
What percentage world class physicists, mathematicians, and such.
Again, are ethnic Turks intellectually incapable of mental superiority ?
Of course not. How could they be ?
But how do you explain the track record of Jews: I can’t.
Some of it – just some – can be explained by favouritism.
But not that level of oversized difference.
I can’t believe it is genetics; can’t be religion; not culture either, because Jews live all over the world in many cultures.
So what is it ?
You tell me if you know.
Random, world chess champion Tigran Petrossian was 100% Armenian, as were many other renowned Armenian grossmeisters.
Avery,
Levon won a round playing against Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan. And that’s all the short article was about. But then you’re having a bad reaction for some reason as if there was pro-Azeri propaganda in it. Save it for when Aliyev start ranting and raving again. Which he does like clockwork.
“And I don’t ever forget nor forgive vile scum who insult my dead grandmother – unlike you.
That is the difference between you and me.”
Avery, if you ever say anything like this to me in person, you will get hurt. Are we clear?
Avery, buddy boy, Random’s point was that your comments may poorly reflect on us Armenians. I am sure you can do your online feudal warrior routine without making yourself and other Armenians sound like raving maniac.
You are not the only one who loves your dead grandmother. Attacking a fellow Armenian who kindly advised you to use caution isnt going to earn you respect. You should know how Armenians treat those who habergate (i.e. cross the line). I suggest you recognize your boundaries.
Random:
I will post anything and anytime: you are a nobody to tell me what to do.
The only entity that controls what I post is ArmenianWeekly.
Go pound sand.
{“Avery, if you ever say anything like this to me in person, you will get hurt. Are we clear?”}
And, Random, save your fake bravery for the vile Turk that insulted you and you ate it.Or would you like me to reproduce the insult and your lily livered response to the vile scum here for all to see (from Hurriyet).
And I might get hurt, but you will be arrested for assault and battery. I will press charges, and you will go to jail. Where you will meet Bubba.
Are we crystal clear ?
Vahagn, sonny boy:
{“….poorly reflect on us Armenians.”} ?
That is pretty rich coming from someone who fills the pages of AW with endless attacks on Armenia and NKR, their institutions, and their elected leaders: all Armenians, and very patriotic Armenians at that.
And please explain to our fellow Armenians @AW what kind of ‘Armenian’ calls our Artsakhtsi brothers and sisters “separatists” ? (that term is routinely used by foreign invader AzeriTatarTurks and Turks, to denigrate and delegitimize the indigenous Armenians of NKR)
You did call our brothers and sisters of NKR “separatists” did you not, Mr. Habergate ?
And already told you what you can do with your suggestions, buddy.
“But how do you explain the track record of Jews: I can’t.”
Avery,
One factor cannot explain all, simply because there are a few factors involved.
How family approaches education, career and success and how family introduces those values to their children and raises them with those values, plays a huge role, perhaps the biggest role. I am not Jewish, but have seen how Jewish family handles education, career and success and how they raise their children with those values.
When the father asks his child what he has accomplished today at the dinner table, the indirect message to the child is that he is supposed to accomplish something every day.
My grandmother and grandfather (both are Armenian) have those type of mentality and I spent considerable amount of time as a child with them. I was raised with those values and those values became part of me without even realizing it.
Avery,
I do not know you or your family personally, but from your writing I could tell that you grew up in a family where education was valued highly and you were raised with that wisdom.
Genetics does have a role as well.
Community and networking have a role as well.
When everyone in your community performs well it puts some pressure on you to perform well as well.
My two cents.
Sella:
Your guess of my family is correct.
Education is highly prized.
The entire Գերդաստան highly values education, and expects the next gens to do better than previous ones.
btw: it is a great achievement to obtain a PhD, like you did; congratulations.
I hope Levon has a few good bodyguards, watching him around the clock. Last time we had anything to do with these brutes, the Armenian got axed to death.
Will Teimour Radjabov be publically ridiculed and flogged for his crimes and transgressions against the ancient holy Azeri race’s superiority when he goes back and be tried for violations against Turkishness? Haha…
Avery, this post of yours must be the most ridiculous and hateful, and fascistic, I have read. And not only because its underlying tone is nasty to the core: “Let’s choose our words such that we thereby deny the very legitimacy of Azeris a real people.” No, not primarily because of that, but because of the breathtaking historical ignorance. I, for example, would never pretend to know Armenian history, because I know my pretension would be obvious for other to see. Now, you somehow claim that the Azeris living in the North are somehow completely unrelated to the Southern Azeris, and that there is some kind of a conspiracy for the northerners to pretend that they are like the southern ones, which you, somehow, imply that are a more legitimate people.
First of all, why would Soviets create a people that is the called the same as 20m “other” people living in Iran? Second, it is the other way around: after Russians took over Azerbaijan in 1800s, they may or mot have referred us as Tatars or Muslim, so as to separate us from Iranian Azeris. But, also, so did Westerners use to refer to almost all East Asian Chinaman. It does not mean that these people were all China-man. Why do you use what Russians called us to define us? They were the ignorant Westerners, so to speak. And we were the Chinaman (Mulsim-man).
And herein comes your biggest give-away of historical ignorance, regarding Southern Azerbaijan. Southern and Northern Azerbaijan were part of the same group before Russian’s took over. How can you possibly (it is beyond me) think that it is just a coincidence or conspiracy that they are called the same? And, Azeris were not just some random scattered minorities in Iran, but they actually ruled Persia for hundreds of years before Persians took back over. When Chingiz Khan reached Iran in 1227, there was already a place called Western Azerbaijan (so, no Stalin did not invent Azerbaijan). And later on, the last Azeris who ruled Iran were Safavid Dynasty (1502-1736), whose empire covered all of modern Azerbaijan too, and guess what, all of modern Armenia too. Only after the Gajar dynasty took over in 1796, that modern Iran changed back to being ruled by Persians and not Turkic Azeris. And throughout all this time Northern and Southern Azeris were part of a same nation.
So, don’t pretend to know what you don’t know. Stick to what you know. I know you get off gathering all this pats-in-the-back from your fellow Armenians. Don’t show your ignorance to your audience. I am sure there are a lot of highly-educated Armenians among them, some who know a thing or two about the regional history. They may not bother to correct you, but I am sure they smirk or cringe nonetheless. Again, stick to what you know.
Ok, Aronian is a better chess player than Rajabov. Don’t try to be parasites off his personal accomplishment. His victory does not make you smarter even by an iota. Nor does it mean that Armenians are smarter than Azeris (or vice versa). It is just a game. Find something you can personally be proud of.
@Ioto, we might the brutes who killed one Armenian. But you have made homeless over 600,000 refugees from Lachin, Susha, Gubadli, Fizuli, Zengilan, Agdam, Kelbecer, Khodkali (and I am not counting the ones from Armenia). How is the real brute?
We know who the brutes are. They are the ones who have been clamoring to cut off Akram Aylisli’s ear.
Karim Khan,
This is what will happen when a natin is smarter than Axeris.
Armenians might beat Azeri army without a single shot – journalist
Armenians asking to not be under the yoke of Azeri rule anymore is not war or agression.. Instead burning armenians, beating armenians and killing Armenians in Sumgait and Baku, then the bombiong of unarmed civilains in Stepanakart for over a month slips your mind? Od course it does.
One Armenian, Kerim?! For Christ’s sake! How soon we forget… Thousands of Armenians in 1905-1907 in Baku and Elizavetpol were slaughtered by whom? Martians? Or maybe by the then-Tartars-turned-“Azerbaijanis”? Dozens of Armenians stubbed, burnt alive, thrown from balconies in Sumgait in 1988 were the result of savagery of which nation, might you know? Armenians in Maragha, Kirovabad and Baku in the late 1908s-early 1990s were killed, mutilated, and forcibly deported by whom?
Azarbaijan, also known as Iranian Azerbaijan or Persian Azarbaijan, has always been a region in northwestern Iran. It is historically known as Atropatene, or Aturpatakan as ancient Armenians called it. Referring to the region as “Southern Azerbaijan” is the product of sick, irredentist, and politically motivated mentality of the Caucasian Tatars in the north, known from 1918 as “Azerbaijanis”.
At no time in history were the Muslim inhabitants of the Russian Transcaucasia known as “Azerbaijanis”. They were known as Caucasian Tatars or Caucasian Tartars or simply Muslims, because they never had national identity. This is the reason why the Bolsheviks and the British attached the name (essentially, stole it) of 20 million other people living in Iran to the newly-cooked “nation” of Azerbaijan in 1918.
Whatever Alexander the Great or Chingiz Khan reached in their conquests, was never called “Western Azerbaijan”. West Azerbaijan is one of the provinces of modern-day Iran, bordering Turkey, Iraq and Nakhichevan. After Alexander the Great conquered Persia in the 4th century BC, he appointed as governor the Persian (repeat: Persian) general Atropates, who established an independent dynasty and the region came to be known as Atropatene or Media Atropatene (“After Atropates”).
Azeris never “ruled Persia for hundreds of years before Persians took back over”. If you mean the Safavid dynasty, it was never “Azeri”. The dynasty was established in the Iranian Azerbaijan and was of mixed Persian Azerbaijani, Kurdish Persian, and Turkmen ancestry that included intermarriages with Georgians and Pontic Greeks.
Why do you come to these pages and spread rubbish about the origins of the inhabitants of the modern-day Republic of AzerBEYjan as being the same as the origins of Persian Azarbaijan? Why is this unquenchable fervor to make your artificially-created nation old? Might it be that you suffer from inferiority complex?
Kerim, how is it that you can not see that Azerbaijani brutality against Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh is to blame for the displacement of all those Azerbaijanis. Armenians had every right to defend themselves once Azerbaijan initiated war against them. Please!
Boyajian, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. It seems that you guys want it all: to have won a war and to have been peacefull. As for who started it, you and I can sit here, all day, saying “you did, no you did it.” But these are empty words. Look at facts. A fact: status quo suited Azerbaijan. Why would we start a war? Who had the motivation to start it? The party that wanted to change the status quo. You had a territorial dispute, you wanted to remove Karabak into Armenian territory, you wanted to have a buffer zone. By the way, you cannot just say “All we wanted was your internationally recognized land. That is all! Why didn’ you just give it to us, and everyone would have been just fine. So it is all your fault!”
Imagine this. The hispanic population in Texas has grown even further, and then in 2025 they are the majority and hold a referendum to re-unite with Mexico. They say: It is all about self-determination!!! And they expel US government organs (including police, military, etc). What do you think the US would do? Would you describe what the US would do as waging a war? You did the same thing. Except, Azerbaijan did not do what US would have done (bring a large army to re-establish US law, while laughing on their way at the silly claims of “self-determination”). Instead there were bunch of protests, and then mutual shelling between Susha and Stepnakert. After that, name me one battle or attemped ones where Azeris tried to take over any Armenian village let alone a whole district? Nada. Nada. Nada. You are the ones who started taking over places. It is a fact that you escalated things into a war. Look at the evidence. And look at the multiple UN resolution demanding Armenians stop their military advances. It is not just your or my word.
Again, you cannot have it both ways: be the peacefuls and “independence winners” Why can’t you just be brave and honest and say this: we wanted to change the fact that Karabak was ruled by Azerbaijan, and like in any other such situation in history we had to resort to military force (wage a war) to achieve this goal.
By the way, according to your definitions, Lincoln would have been an independence crusher, versus the preserver of a state.
Kerim, don’t try to build arguments on false comparisons:
“Imagine this. The hispanic population in Texas has grown even further, and then in 2025 they are the majority and hold a referendum to re-unite with Mexico. They say: It is all about self-determination!!! ”
Faulty comparison. Armenian population didn’t just happen to ‘increase’ in the disputed territory. Armenians were there for generations before ‘Azerbaijan’ was established by the Soviets. This imposition of Azeri control is the basis for self-determination claims.
Why was the territory designated as Nagorno Karabagh Autonomous Oblast?
Your fairy tale above fails to remember the pogroms initiated by Azeris in Sumgait, Kirovabad and Baku. But if this helps you fall asleep easier at night, I understand.
Thanks for not trying to shove the story of massacres at Khojali down our throats. The people killed during that siege deserve better than to be used as pawns in a manipulated and forged tale of massacre.
Hagop … enough to think the opposite of Armenian orthodoxy regarding Azeris/Turks? He or she may be wrong in what he says, but every civilized nation has them. Where are yours then, the oppositves-of-brute? Or are you never going to get out of your cycle of self-incestuous affirmations of group-think? I.e., the noble Armenians versus the nefarious incarnations of pure evil, i.e., Turks/Azeriz? We, the Armenians, who, while having taken over by force 20% of a neighbor’s internationally-recognized territory, has not killed a single civilian, but have merely failed to stop the dead ones from having shot and scalped themselves in places like Khodjali. We the Armenians whose handful 300-like warriors have defeated with hunters’ rifles the entire armies of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Afghans, Chechens, Ukrainians, and even Russia itself! Where is your Aylisli? You badly need one, let me you tell you.
We had dozens of Aylislis back in those “peace-loving” Ottoman days. And we saw what happened to them. More recently, we had an Armenian Aylisli in Turkey. His name was Hrant Dink. You should look up what happened to him.
Even worse were those Armenians who fought to bring socialism and establish Soviet power in Baku. What a disaster that turned out to be for them.
And no, I do not think in tired binaries of evil Azeris/righteous Armenians. But I do think the Karabagh Armenians’ are entirely justified in their declaration of independence given what I consider to be a neofascistic regime running things in Azerbaijan. Why would they want to be part of a country run by Ilham Aliyev and whose society is influenced by Musavatist ideology?
To Kerim,
“@Ioto, we might the brutes who killed one Armenian. But you have made homeless over 600,000 refugees from Lachin, Susha, Gubadli, Fizuli, Zengilan, Agdam, Kelbecer, Khodkali (and I am not counting the ones from Armenia). How is the real brute?”
And, you made 500,000 Armenians from Baku, Sumgait and Kirovabad homeless. What is your point Kerim?
Wait a second…. Am I really finding myself in the position of having to explain that the Southern and Northern Azeris are the same people? Really? According to everyone in the world, too all encylopedias, books, everything, they are … And wait, wait, AND They are called the same name, they speak the same languge, they have the same religious, and they have the same history, and yet somehow you think they are two different peoples? Wow! I am speechless at the power of self-delusion … the delusion that you resort to … I guess you theory that Azeris are a made up nation does not make sense because of the Southern Azeris (Stalin could not have invented them) … So you feel the silly need to make the propeosterous argument that they are two different nations. Wow, and wow. Fantastic! So what is there then to prevent others to say the same thing that Armenians of Arm Republic and those in Syria are two different people, huh?
Dear Moderator, I ask you to let through this last post of mine. I know I have said the same thing before, and lied, but this time I will kep my word, I promise. And thanks again for letting me thru in the past.
So, dear AW Armenians. This is my last post here. I have said this before, but failed to stay away. I promise I wont this time. Consider this a fairwell. But with a twist. I must say though that I hate Armenians now much more than I did before reading AW. I had thought that there could could be peace between us. But, having see the kind of self-rightous delusion and plain historical distortions … You cannot live in peace with a neigbor who thinks you are a fake nation and you have no legitimate right to the land on which you live. Plain and simple. I think AW should be a mandatory reading to all liberal Azeis like myself, and even our schoolchilren. And yes, I am a liberal Azeri. Here I was, acknowleding the Karabak should be indepdent, that pogroms did take place, that Safarov shoud have never been pardoned, Geoncide did happen … I am not sayin you should have leaped up and thanked me. No, that is not the point. But, the hatred and nasty racism I got back … No matter what, in your eyes, I am just an Azeri, whom you clearly hate no matter what. In other words, it does not matter what we do or say. You hate us for who we are. Could peace ever be had between us? Never. See, we Azeris have extremists too. But never would Azeris think that Armenians are a fake bunch of people. The Azeri hatred of Armenians is based on loss of land and humilation of a war loss. I am really at a loss to understand why you hate us so much? Ok, there was 50-100 Armenians killed in Sumgayit. But the extent of the hatred? You have taken our land, and yet you are the ones who hate the most? Then I wondered whether or not it was because of your hatred of Turks that you hate us this much? But I was quickly let know that, no, actually, we hate you even without Turks being part of the picture.
SOmeone here told me (Hagop?) that a loss does bad things to a nation’s physche, and he understand the Azeri “complexes.” I think the same could be more aptly said about the Armenian psyche. Your catastrophic loss during Genocide have permanently changed the way you see the world. You have become a deeply resentful, revengeful, and might I add, a nasty neigbor. In a ssense, I dont blame you. The genocide was a great calamaity. But so here we are though. For the lack of a better word, stuck with a rabid neigbor, out to prove themselves, prove that they can reclaim their lost historical greatness, that they are indeed a great people (which, I guess, required belittling the Other to make youself look grander, as if being called the same name is somehow a sign of racial superiority. Crocodiles too have been the same for much longer than humans, but that does not mean crocodiles are a superme race, while humans are just nomads on the stage of world history).
Yes, I do hate Armenians. I have been shocked by the nastiness of the narrative dominating these pages. Any Azeri or Turkish person who enters these site, even those who actually agree with you (remember, Murat, the poor Turk, who expected flowers for acknowledging Genocide, was probably awe-struck at the flood of hatred he got). It is like through a peace of meat to a pack of rabid dogs. I am sorry, I dont mean to insult you with such words as rabid, etc. I just cannot think of a better, cleaner word, to describe my impression here.
Anyways. Yes, it is my last post. I thank AW again for allowing to post here. Actually, this publication itself is the only positive thing, impression I walk away with. It is a well-done and an open-minded group of people, who have created the most lively discussion forum relating to Turkish, Armenian, Azeri relations. That was a good finde. But not the hatred I witness here. The last straw for me was this strange line of attack where the argument was that the northern Azeri are somehow impostor and tryin to pass themselves as the same ethnicity as the Southern Azeris. That was just too much to handle in terms of the grand self-delusive self-rightousness.
Adios!
Sad to hear you’re leaving Kerim. It was good to tussle with someone who was able to face truth and approach controversial dialogue mostly with a level head. Did you really expect not to encounter strong anger towards Azerbaijan here? Do you mean to suggest that the strong anti-Azeri sentiment expressed by some Armenians here is not matched by strong anti-Armenian sentiment among your countrymen? I hope, despite your own strong feelings of hatred toward Armenians, you will continue this exchange. You are only human and your emotions got the best of you. Take a break, but be careful if you decide to write in Azeri newspapers —- You could lose an ear or worse for some of the things you have expressed here.
[Yes, I do hate Armenians.] —You showed your true face, Kerim. Your “liberalism” lost any value with this confession of yours.
[The Azeri hatred of Armenians is based on loss of land and humiliation of a war loss.] —At least, Armenians have fought your ilk in the self-determination war and not burnt your co-ethnics alive during the peacetime. I hope this will help you understand that the harsh anti-Azerbaijani sentiment on these pages is based on killings and other forms of savage physical humiliation that your Azerbaijani brethren have committed against innocent Armenian non-combatants. Not on the battlefields, but on the streets and squares of the Azerbaijani cities.
It’s a shame to hear you’re leaving, Kerim.