Security of the Nation, Political Sovereignty/Independence
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Armenia’s natural place in the world today is in a close union with the Russian Federation. Armenia was resurrected in the early 19th century by the Russian Bear. For the past two hundred years Armenia has been able to live in a dangerous neighborhood like the south Caucasus only because of its ties to Russia. The post-Soviet years have shown beyond any doubt that Armenians are not ready for independence, and may not be ready for well into the foreseeable future. Besides, Armenia’s independence from Russia will only translate to Armenia’s dependence on Turkey. And if Russia decided to pull out of Armenia today, Armenia will disappear from the world map the very next day. The existence of an Armenia only serves Russia’s and Iran’s interests; no one else. Western powers, including the US, have been detrimental to Armenia. Armenia must limit its exposure to the toxic West. For better or for worst, Armenia is wed to Russia. For better or for worst, Armenia must maintain good relations with Iran…
You’re Right that Armenia should endeavor to empower its rapport with Russia and Iran.
This fellow is just tilting at windmills once again. All the revanchist talk about the next war is just a sad dream and is almost certainly unachievable. Armenia is outmatched militarily and the gap grows larger every day. Also his talk of making the surroundings of Armenia uninhabitable for generations as a barrier is an illustration of the hypocrisy of Armenia when they complain of alleged damage to cultural monuments by Azerbaijan.
There is nothing that is unachievable in this world. If there is a will there is a way and we Armenians certainly have the will and the enemy knows that and that is why they are in such a hurry to maximize their gains while this unpatriotic Armenian leadership is in office and as a result of the last opportunistic, unequal and terroristic war of 2020 mishandled and mismanaged by the very same and current incompetent and dysfunctional regime. A war not fought by artificial Azerbaijan alone against a small Armenian defense army in the conflict zone, mostly made up of volunteers, for if that were the case they would have lost that war too. What you don’t seem to understand is the fact that this war was NATO member terrorist Turkey’s proxy war on the Armenians using the Azerbaijani armed forces. Directly and indirectly in this war also participated terrorist Pakistan, some of the former Soviet republics by way providing our enemy deadly weapons, morally-bankrupt and hypocritical Zionist state of Israel which supplied the enemy over five billion dollars’ worth of long-range missiles and kamikaze UAVs (drones), as well as the transplantation in the conflict zone by terrorist Turkish leadership the Northern Syrian ISIS terrorist paid-mercenaries hired by Azerbaijani petrodollars. Over 90% of the Armenian army did not even participate in this war. Merely a total of 30,000 Armenian defensive forces fought against 100,000 Azerbaijani terrorists, embedded in them about a thousand Turkish terrorists, and the war itself preplanned, provoked and conducted by Turkey’s terrorist defense ministry.
Artificial Azerbaijan neither has the know-how nor does it have the military competency to coordinate and conduct a war of that magnitude. That’s where genocidal Turkey with 70 years of NATO experience comes into play. Despite all Azerbaijani resources, both man and fire power, if the two sides were left alone to fight their own fights with the right (patriotic) Armenian leadership in office, I have no doubt Azerbaijan would again have been humiliated and would have lost yet another major war like they did in 1994. Only four years prior to 2020 war Azerbaijan started another war, using the same type of weapons more or less, and lasted less than a week with massive casualties. That was the 4-day war of April 2016. What was the difference between that war and the latest one? The 2016 war was mostly fought by Azerbaijanis, in consultations with terrorist Turkey, while the 2020 war had terrorist Turkey’s fingerprints and direct military involvement. The Turkish defense ministry was in charge conducting the war for Azerbaijan. The criminal Azerbaijani gas station disguised as a country neither had a government nor an army for 44 days. They were both turned over to terrorist Turkey. They even used NATO weapons in this war left behind in enemy-occupied Armenian Nakhijevan province after joint Turkish-Azerbaijani military exercises and transported and hidden in other parts of artificial Azerbaijani cesspool.
Making the surroundings of Armenia uninhabitable as a barrier is the least we should do. This despicable racist enemy falsifying history and expropriating the Armenian homeland should be wiped off the face of the earth with nuclear weapons.
In the 1990’s, 18th June 1989 to be exact, Burma changed its name from Burma to Myanmar, does it mean it is artificial or fake ?. If they decide to change their name from Myanmar to Timbuktuland in the near future, does it make them a fake / artificial nation ? No, it is nothing but a name change, no aliens had invaded or started to reside there. Azerbaijan derives from that of Atropates,the original etymology of this name is thought to have its roots in the once-dominant Zoroastrianism. In the Avesta’s Frawardin Yasht (“Hymn to the Guardian Angels”), there is a mention of âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide, which literally translates from Avestan as “we worship the fravashi of the holy Atropatene”.The name “Atropates” itself is the Greek transliteration of an Old Iranian, probably Median from the 3rd century BC, compounded name with the meaning “Protected by the (Holy) Fire” or “The Land of the (Holy) Fire”. Over the span of millennia, the name evolved to Āturpātākān (Middle Persian), then to Ādharbādhagān, Ādharbāyagān, Āzarbāydjān (New Persian) and present-day Azerbaijan. This is clearly more than 100 years of history
It is nonsense. azerbaidjan is a province in Persia. Your people are Invaders or assimilated and turkified persian tribes like kurds, talysh, lezgi. you have no ties with this lands
The territory Atropatene (Atrpatakan) includes much more than Azerbaian republic. No?
I was born in 1955, in San Francisco, California. I’ve seen a lot, since then. In the last 50 years, USA seems more interested in helping troubled Islamic Peoples, than Christian Communities that have suffered, at the bloody hands of Turkic Peoples, and Muslim Jihads.
I’ve seen some transformations in the country, and one that is disquieting, is the veering away from America’s Christian Identity. Sure, it’s true that the USA was founded with a “Separation of Church and State” (with a Secular Political Foundation), but that doesn’t eliminate the cultural role of Christianity, in the American Experience. American Christian Communities were there saving the lives of Ottoman Christian Armenians, during the Hamidian Massacres (1894-1896), and the century old Armenian Genocide (1915-1923).
What I see happening now, isn’t the kind of America that was esteeming to save Armenian lives, way back in 1915; it’s not that America, with a useless “F Grade” American Ambassador in Armenia, during the 2020 War; it’s not that America, with American Oil Companies conspiring to enrich Baku, Azerbaijan; and, it’s not that America, with America kissing up to NATO Turkey.
During lebanese civil war whole arabs gulf egypt came to kill christians now lebanon demographic is totally changed armenians looking forward to leaving middle east but you western people love to visit their countries boosting their tourism look how many millions western visit dubai egypt turkey qatar while any of them wont visit armenia.
a quick history lesson. the republic of Azerbaijan was historically part of the Persian empire and part of it still is part of (Persian empire) modern Iran. today’s Azaris are the childrens of Persians who attacked, occupied and annexed Armenia and subjugated its population for thousands of years until 1818-1828 (nothing to be proud of). so they have not come from nowhere all of a sudden. they are some of the former masters of Armenians. after the collapse of the soviet union Azaris rightly decided to establish an independent state rather than joining Iran.
Yes that’s right, Azerbaijan was part of the Persian empire until 1828 and only ceded to the Russians with the treaty of Turkmenchay. Azeri language is 90% Persian and interchangeable
Blah blah blah I’ve heard Armenians online talk about invading and annexing land from Georgia, like come on, do you really want to see fellow Armenians starve for your revanchist fantacies. An irridentist Armenia at war with all its neighbors is what some want to see. But the likeliest thing you get is an Armenia no different from any new colonialist puppets of France in Africa.
In a recent article on the abortion debate in the US, Peggy Noonan wrote ( WSJ, Aug 4th, 2022) “This is America working it out. Some states will be extreme in one direction, some in the other. It’s going to be ugly for a while. Sweet reason has seldom been a dominant characteristic of combatants in this fight. Too bad, because in the vast middle there’s a lot of it.” The same applies to the national security debate in Armenia.
Part 2 makes many angry accusations against the current Pashinian and the first Ter Petrossian governments of the Armenian Republic for proposing to exchange territory for defensible borders. Firstly, there were many good arguments made in 1996 by Dr. Jirair Libaridian on why that was a wise course of action when Armenia had the upper hand. Today Armenia is ceding land under duress and capitulation. The opposing camp had said “not to give an inch of land “ and they succeeded in deposing Ter Petrossian in 1998. If the Kocharyan and Sargsyan governments ( and their diaspora supporters) really believed in not giving an inch, then they should have mobilized the whole STATE and diaspora NATION to build the garrison state capable of defending itself and putting fear in Armenia’s enemies. This required a dynamic educational system, thriving economy and advanced military technology. Instead, as we know now, Armenia was hollowed out and turned into a “paper tiger”. The diaspora aided and abetted in this process by going along with successive governments by proclaiming “hollow progress” (dance groups and youtube videos pacify people by giving appearance of progress!) and “memoranda of understanding” on non existent projects. The diaspora was relegated to providing humanitarian aid without changing STATE policy. Meanwhile the diaspora was content to continue with its assimilation, indifference and enjoying the material benefits of the West.
In my opinion, both sides had a germ of truth. Artsakh was and is strategically important for Armenia’s defense. A RED line should have been drawn around the lands adjoining Armenia ( Artsakh, Kelbajar, Lachin areas) as non negotiable while the areas to the east and possibly south of Artsakh could have been traded for “peace” . As in the case of Israel and the Arabs, peace will only come through strength. Pashinian’s “peace strategy” is laughed at by the mobsters in Baku, Ankara and Moscow. On the other hand “Not giving an inch” is not a political and diplomatic strategy. As usual, Armenians underestimated their enemies. They can’t believe that the descendents of Tatar nomads are now seriously threatening millenia old Christian Armenia. Armenia has been “unmasked”. The State and Nation have to work very hard for the next several generations to put their house in order; otherwise we will end up like the Assyrians, Chaldeans and the Kurds.
Former armenian politician diaapora must be hold accountable against thefting diaspora fund money spending for own benefits and armenia must be run by diaspora otherwise we see result ,now those nomadic tatars richer than us EU is their biggest investor l talk generally in russia in kazakhstan turkey azerbaijan in arab states if we cant stop western christians makes business with them they will not stop bomb us of course l dont trust fully west cause we see their real face 90s balkan war they sided with albanians and bosniaks whose occupied christian serbs and west organized arabs pakistanis indonesians turks chechens genocide on serbians also we must responsible to save armenians in middle east they facing dailiy discrimination against by their faith if west keep contunie buy oil gas from them there is never will be peace for armenians and maronites in middle east,if you come and see beirut you will see how arab invaders occupied ruined beirut especially crusade heritage castles
When the area you’ve convinced yourself is essential for your existence as a nation is recognized the world over as the legal territory of your neighbor, don’t be surprised nobody comes to your aid when that neighbor takes it back by force. You don’t seem to understand Armenia needs peace to ensure it’s survival, nothing matters when you feel surrounded by neighbors you’ve declared generational enemies. Armenians will continue to leave Armenia If the threat of war and death that inevitably leads to money needed to invest in education, industry and innovation being poured into buying weapons to take or defend territories nobody agrees is Armenia’s. Peaceful coexistence will ensure the stability needed for growth.
Austin onah
What you claim is not true at all. It is not that so-called the “whole world”, whatever that means, recognizes these territories as “legal” territories of our artificially-invented terrorist neighbor next door but the fact that for every member country of this “whole world” their self-interests are their primary concerns and not what belongs to whom. If they could and would put aside their self-serving politics they all unanimously would agree that these are native Armenian lands. There are so many territories and enclaves around the world that opposing sides are fighting for that if they were to tell the truth and stand by the legitimate rights of the Armenians they would be invalidating themselves and illegitimizing their own claims. This is the real problem and not whether or not these lands are Armenian because they are. Then there are those who are heavily invested in the Caspian oil & gas whose industries and lives depend on these commodities and our terrorist enemy has plenty. Given these facts, do you think these double-talking politicians would ever man up and stand on the side of the truth? Of course not! That’s why they are politicians. A bunch of self-serving charlatans and thieves. Also, why is it that people’s right to self-determination was ignored in the case of the Armenians but this very same right was granted to Kosovo violating Serbia’s territorial integrity? Think about that one!
P.S. There are two important facts you need to know and don’t seem you do and they are:
1. These territories in contention, along with the Armenian Nakhijevan province, were taken away from the Armenians and placed under the jurisdiction of the newly-invented artificial Azerbaijan by the Soviets who themselves, in collaboration with their Turkish coconspirators, invented this artificial state in 1918 in the first place. These territorial seizures and transfers took place in 1921 after this artificial Azerbaijani state was Sovietized.
2. When in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union this artificial Azerbaijani cesspool became independent it declared itself as a successor state to that of 1918 first Azerbaijani republic and not successor state to that of the 1921 Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist republic. The seizure and transfer of these Armenian territories to artificial Azerbaijan, to Azerbaijan-SSR to be exact, took place under the Soviet rule and not prior to that. In other words, these territories were not part of the 1918 artificial Azerbaijan. As such, these territories stay outside of this artificial Azerbaijani state. They never belonged to them until the criminal Soviets redrew their empire’s internal maps as part of their good old divide-and-rule policy.
Ararat I’ve heard all kinds of insult regarding what Azerbaijan is or isn’t from you. I deal in reality and not fantasy, hence why my earlier comment still stands. Peace is the only way out for Armenia, really hate it or like it, that fact won’t change. The world over nobody recognizes Armenian claims on Azerbaijani territory, whether or not it’s based on disputes you had with Azerbaijan before, during or after the Soviet Union. If Ukrainians take back Crimea by force tomorrow no country will be on Russian side. I’ve told you the harsh reality, weather you choose to accept peace with your neighbors or not that fact stands.
Austin Onah
The reality you are talking about is not reality. It is manufactured reality. I’m sure if today Armenia was the one with energy resources badly needed by the spineless west, they would all be rallying around Armenia and advancing its interests. Once again, wasn’t it this very same fictitious world which you talk about that violated Serbia’s territorial integrity and granted Kosovo its right to self-determination while ignoring the very same rights for the indigenous Armenians? Why this double-standard? What reality are you talking about? It seems like you are the one living in the fantasy world.
Why is it that terrorist Turkey has gotten away with the murder of over 3.5 million native Christians, Armenians-Greeks-Assyrians, with impunity, has betrayed the alliance to which it belongs multiple times by attacking US allies in Syria, made anti-western deals with their primary enemy Russia and has gotten away with it when in reality their behavior and actions would be considered treasonous in the real world? Because terrorist Turkey has geopolitical importance to the west in the region just like criminal artificial Azerbaijan has oil & gas the west needs, and therefore their importance to the west outweighs everything else these criminals do and have done. Because there is no such real world as you so naively adhere to but there is only an illusion of a real world. Why is it that the west constantly talks about democracy and human rights and topples regimes and installs puppet regimes across the globe under such nonsense while not only turns a blind eye on some of the world’s most notorious totalitarian regimes, i.e. Saudi Arabia, but it also assists them militarily? Where is the logic in that? It is all about self-interests and historical realities have no place in them. Sorry to say, we are not gullible and uninformed like you are.
The arguments that no one would support Armenia because they occupied Azerbaijan land is nonsense. If Armenia had been militarily, economically and diplomatically strong, it could have convinced world powers (especially Russia) that Artsakh, Kelbajar and Lachin were “essential “ to provide strategic depth for Armenia’s survival as a people. Maybe some kind of arrangement could have been worked out by bringing in some Russian “peace keepers” to keep Moscow happy, but with Armenian control. It would have required deft diplomacy which may be beyond the grasp of Armenian politicians. Similar arguments have been made by Israel with respect to occupying the West Bank of Palestine. The international community has taken an ambiguous approach to these issues. It does not formally endorse Israeli takeover but also looks the other way and gives lip service to the Palestinians. This is possible because of Israeli military and economic strength supported by a very influential diaspora. Armenian elites wasted thirty years hollowing out the country, while sidelining a weak diaspora. In reality both sides desperately needed each other in order to survive.