Category: 2021

Armenia’s Ombudsman slams government’s policy not to publish the number of Armenian captives kept in Azerbaijan

Emil Lazarian
Aysor, Armenia
Jan 20 2021

Armenia’s Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan took to Facebook to slam the policy of the government not to publish the number of Armenian prisoners of war kept in Azerbaijan.

“The government has reasoned not publishing the number of Armenian captives simply mentioning that the issue is of “extremely sensitive nature.” It is not an acceptable approach,” the ombudsman stressed.

Tatoyan said in reality if the government publishes the number of Armenian captives an opportunity will be created to essentially raise the international pressure on Azerbaijan in the issue of freeing them.

He also stressed that fundaments will be laid to forward additional commitments to the Azerbaijani side, raise the level of defense of Armenian captives kept in Azerbaijan.

The ombudsman also noted that it will also reduce the dissemination of false and confusing information and consequently any attempt of manipulation.

New book examines the history of Armenians of Musa Dagh

Emil Lazarian
Public Radio of Armenia
Jan 20 2021

– Public Radio of Armenia

Vahram Shemmassian, head of the Armenian Studies Program at California State University, Northridge, explores the history of Armenian resistance in the Musa Dagh region of the Ottoman Empire in his latest book, The California State University Northridge (CSUN) informs.

“The Armenians of Musa Dagh: From Obscurity to Genocide Resistance and Fame 1840-1915” is the second book by the Armenian scholar that chronicles the lives of the Armenian people living in the Ottoman Empire, as well as their resistance during the Armenian genocide. His first book in the series was “The Musa Dagh Armenians: A Socioeconomic and Cultural History, 1919-1939.”

– Public Radio of Armenia

Shemmassian said he sees parallels between what happened 100 years ago to what is happening today in the region, with the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh sandwiched between the two states. 

“Turkey has been providing Azerbaijan with arms, and terrorists from Syria to help dispose of Armenians and, more specifically, to ethnically cleanse the country in order to obtain land,” he said. “The same resistance against tyranny and extermination that happened in the past is occurring again now, as an attempt to fully dispose of Armenian culture and the people apart of it.”

“The Armenians of Musa Dagh” is a comprehensive history of the people of Musa Dagh, who rose to prominence with their resistance to the genocide in 1915. Shemmassian presents a thorough analysis of the social, economic, religious, educational, and political history of the six villages that constituted Armenian Musa Dagh. He focuses on the important period of the mid-19th to the early 20th century, offering new insights into the people whose courage and persistence ultimately led to their successful self-defense.

The last (and longest) chapter of his book details the Armenian resistance to genocide, he said.

– Public Radio of Armenia

“We are all angry about what’s happening with Armenia and Azerbaijan, because they are finishing what Turkey started during World War I,” Shemmassian said. “Many war crimes were committed against Armenia last year, almost identical to the genocide that was happening a century ago. 

In addition to his work, Shemmassian pointed to “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh,” a novel by Franz Werfel that tells the struggles the Armenian community faced, as a work that can help people understand, on a more intimate level, what happened to the Armenian people during the genocide..

The publication of “The Armenians of Musa Dagh” comes on the heels of an anonymous $3 million gift to CSUN’s Armenian Studies Program, to support research and scholarships for students.

Shemmassian said he hopes his books provide a historical context for what is happening in Armenia today, as the past continues to influence Armenians.

“The final product, the publication of my books, is the most fulfilling feeling that one can have,” he said. “They are a legacy. At some point, we all die. I’m glad that I’m leaving something behind for future generations to read and learn.” 

UNDP to provide 250 mln drams worth of support package to farmers in Armenia’s regions

David Nargizian
Panorama, Armenia
Jan 20 2021

In total 250 million drams worth of support package will be provided by UNDP in Armenia to more than 50 farmers in Lori, Shirak and Tavush Provinces of Armenia in the framework of the Green Agriculture Initiative in Armenia (EU-GAIA) project, funded by the European Union in Armenia and the Austrian Development Cooperation. 

This support will be provided to the best applicants in the legumes, herbs and sheep breeding value chains, who will receive support through the provision of high value agricultural investments, machinery, equipment and services aimed at strengthening agribusiness in the region, business capacity development, introduction of various green technologies, added value creation and increased production volumes, UN in Armenia reported. 

During the past few weeks, UNDP signed corresponding Statement of Intents with 54 beneficiaries. Furthermore, some of the project beneficiaries have already received resources according to their farm development plans, such as purebred sheep, agricultural equipment, motoblocks, mini-tractors, high-efficiency mills, processing equipment and dryers.

Turkish Press: No basis to define 1915 events as genocide: French historian Gauin

Emil Lazarian
Daily Sabah, Turkey
Jan 20 2021
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 No basis to define 1915 events as genocide: French historian Gauin | Daily Sabah

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rench historian Maxime Gauin said that the events of 1915 cannot be identified as genocide as there was no systematic massacre and at least 350,000 Ottoman Armenians had been exempted from deportation.

In an interview with the New York-based Turkish-American Security Foundation (TASFO), Gauin said that he examined many historical documents regarding the incident, emphasizing that the 1915 events could not be considered a "genocide case" as asserted by Armenia.

The deportation was based on a rational perception of national security and at least 350,000 Ottoman Armenians, possibly up to 500,000 including members of Parliament, civil servants and high-level statesmen, were exempted from the deportation, which proves that the case was not a genocide, Gauin said.

He added that a systematic massacre was never carried out as there were clear orders from the Ottoman government on the protection of Armenians, noting that the individuals who committed criminal acts between 1915 and 1917 were punished.

In 1915, the Ottoman Empire relocated Armenians in eastern Anatolia following revolts when some sided with invading Russians, which resulted in some Armenian casualties.

Yerevan has demanded an apology and compensation, while Turkey officially refuted the Armenian allegations over the incidents saying that although Armenians died during the relocation, many Turks also lost their lives in attacks carried out by Armenian gangs in Anatolia.

Gauin started his research on the 1915 events in 2006-2007 and completed his doctoral dissertation between 2011-2019.

“This thesis consists of a 50-page bibliography including primary printed sources and memoirs, and examination of over 220 boxes of documents and microfilms,” he said.

The historian also criticized France’s stance on the 1915 events, describing the parliamentary report justifying the recognition of the genocide allegations as "appalling."

He added that it is hypocrisy to ignore the Muslim losses while talking about Armenian casualties.

France, housing a significant Armenian community over its ties with the Levant and post-World War I mandate rule in Syria, where most Armenians in Anatolia were relocated, was the first European country to recognize the events as genocide in 2001. In addition, Macron announced the national day of remembrance in February 2019, saying that his country "knows how to look history in the face." The decision came following the deterioration of the relations between Turkey and France.

Expert weighs in on Biden’s presidency and Armenia

Emil Lazarian
Big News Network
Jan 20 2021

PanArmenian.Net
21st January 2021, 00:07 GMT+11

PanARMENIAN.Net - Once U.S. President-elect Joe Biden takes office, America's attitude towards Armenia may change, but policies won't, political scientist Suren Sargsyan said Wednesday, January 20. Sargsyan believes, the influence of American policies on Armenia has three components – global policy and its impact on Armenia, regional policy and its impact, and bilateral relations.

According to the expert, it is natural that the United States' relations with Iran, Russia and Turkey have an impact on Armenia: 'Economic pressure on a strategic ally (Russia is the strategic ally of Armenia – Ed.), sanctions on neighboring Iran are also hitting our economy hard, with strained relations further complicating our ability to maneuver.'

As far as Turkey is concerned, Sargsyan said, the new administration too will try to establish relations with Armenia.

'There will be policy adjustments towards the South Caucasus, taking into account the recent war and the realities that have emerged since then, such as the fact that it (the U.S. – Ed.) is a co-chair of the Minsk Group and has somewhat been excluded from the process,' Sargsyan wrote in a Facebook post.

'However, global changes, as I have already noted, should not be expected.'

In the second part of his analysis, Sargsyan said he will weigh in on bilateral relations between Armenia and the U.S.

Biden is to be sworn in as U.S. president on Wednesday. Alongside him, Kamala Harris will make history when she is sworn in as the nation's first female vice-president. Donald Trump will leave the White House for the last time, bound for Florida.

In Azerbaijan, patriotic Jewish soldiers are poster children of the war with Armenia

Arbi Tashjian
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jan 19 2021
By Cnaan Liphshiz January 19, 2021 5:18 pm

(JTA) — For decades, Rabbi Zamir Isayev has prayed on Shabbat mornings for the government of his native Azerbaijan, a Muslim-majority nation situated northwest of Iran.

Amid the recent deadly fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over disputed territory, he has added a special prayer for the well-being of Azerbaijan’s soldiers, which he follows up with his regular prayer for Israeli troops.

“Israel is my country as a Jew. Azerbaijan is my country as an Azeri,” Isayev, 40, told the Jewish Telegraphic agency. He was born in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, but grew up in Israel and served in its army.

Isayev’s patriotism is typical of Azeri Jews, one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities, whose synagogues often feature Azeri and Israeli flags as well as pictures of community members who gave their lives fighting for Azerbaijan and before that the Soviet Union.

Isayev has additional reasons for praying for the soldiers. Dozens of members from his minority of about 8,000 people are serving in Azerbaijan’s army, which suffered more than 2,000 fatalities in fighting last year with Armenia over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Though the parties signed an armistice in November, tensions in the area remain high. 

One of the Jewish troops who took part in the fighting is 26-year-old David Sadiyev, a graduate of the Jewish high school in Baku. Isayev taught him to sing the Torah segment of his bar mitzvah.

Sadiyev, who returned home as relative calm returned to the border area, was featured prominently in the Azeri media, where he was presented as a symbol for tolerance and ethnic coexistence in Azerbaijan and its army. In an interview with Trend, a major news site, he was pictured putting on tefillin and posing with the Azeri and Israeli flags.

DayTube, the Azeri version of YouTube, featured a video of Sadiyev saying “Long live the friendship between Azerbaijan and Israel! Karabakh is Azerbaijan!” before shooting his AK-47 several times into the sky.

“Of course I’m worried for them,” Isayev said about his former students and congregants serving in the army. “But I’m also incredibly proud of them.”

The attention devoted to Sadiyev was likely directed from the top in Azerbaijan — an oil-rich dictatorship with no free press and a tight control over social media — to highlight religious tolerance in the country.

“This is a country where anti-Semitism is simply not an issue,” Isayev said.

That sentiment seems to be the consensus among leaders and members of Azerbaijan’s Jewish minority, who have repeated it both on and off the record in interviews with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and other media.

“Azerbaijan has a lot of minorities: Russians, Christians, Iranians, even Armenians,” Isayev said, “but the Jews are seen here as especially loyal and cherished allies. We’re not just another ethnic minority here.”

It’s an aspect of Azeri society that is grounded in history, according to Zeev Levin, an expert on Central Asia’s Jewish communities and a research fellow at the Truman Institute.

“Jews have lived in Azerbaijan for so long that they predate much of the other populations there,” he said. “That’s in stark difference to places like Ukraine, where they arrived as outsiders and are still seen as such by many.”

Azerbaijan captured a large swath of land in the 2020 hostilities from an entity known in Armenia as Artsakh, which is supported by Armenia. Backed by Armenian troops, that entity has held territories internationally recognized as belonging to Azerbaijan since hostilities in the 1990s.

Despite losing over 2,000 troops in the fighting, Azerbaijan has celebrated the war’s outcome as a victory. The Azeri government last month organized a military parade showcasing not its own units but vehicles – including twisted wrecks – it had captured from Armenia in battle.

Across the former Soviet Union, Jewish communities are often fearful of waves of nationalism like the one on display in Azerbaijan because they have often resulted in an explosion of anti-Semitism.

Not so in Azerbaijan, according to both Levin and Isayev.

“Fear of such things is not relevant to this part of the world,” Isayev said.

Even when Azerbaijan was part of the Soviet Union, Jews were allowed to keep practicing their faith, making it an exception among Soviet republics.

Radical Islam has little public presence in Azerbaijan, whose capital features a prominent statue of a woman removing her veil. The “Statue of a Liberated Woman” was built in the 1960s under communism, Isayev said, “but the fact that it stayed, and has never attracted any acts of vandalism, tells you a lot.”

In Azerbaijan, Mountain Jews, or Juhuro, are the largest of three Jewish communities, followed by Ashkenazim and ethnic Georgians. With lineage dating to the Jews of ancient Persia, the Juhuro are believed to have settled in the region 1,000 years ago. They speak Juhuri, a mix of Farsi and ancient Hebrew.

In Azerbaijan, many Mountain Jews either have homes or live in Krasnaiya Sloboda, a town in the country’s north where hundreds of Mountain Jews come from the rest of the country and beyond convene to visit the graves of their ancestors each year on Tisha b’Av, a day of mourning in Judaism for the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem.

But the center of Jewish life in Azerbaijan is Baku, a bustling metropolis reminiscent of Jerusalem for its mix of modern architecture, ancient Old City neighborhood – once a major stop on the Silk Road — and the light-colored stone facades of many of its buildings. Baku has six synagogues, a kosher restaurant, two Jewish schools and a Jewish kindergarten among other communal institutions.

Azerbaijan is also one of the only Muslim-majority countries in the world where the Holocaust is taught at schools as part of the mandatory curriculum. Controversially, teachers are instructed to draw parallels between the Jewish genocide and the Khojaly massacre of several hundred Azeris by Armenians in the First Nagorno-Karabakh War of 1992. Khojaly was one of multiple atrocities perpetrated over the past 300 years against civilians by militias from both parties in an ancient conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over territory and religion (Azerbaijan’s population is mostly Shiite Muslims, whereas in Armenia most citizens belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church.)

Hotels in Baku often fly the Israeli flag along with those of other countries, including Russia, France and the United States, in an appeal to tourists from those nations. Israelis are often treated with friendliness, especially by army personnel and veterans inquiring about the visitors’ military service. Israel also plays a prominent role in arming and training the Azeri army – a convenient ally on the doorstep of main enemy Iran. That fact is well-known there and prompts expressions of gratitude and admiration by locals toward Israelis.

But Isayev said the friendship between Israel and Azerbaijan is based on more than merely shared interests.

“Jews have long been in the fabric of the people of Azerbaijan,” he said. But beyond the shared history, “The Jewish people and the Azeri people share a secret weapon that is more powerful than technology: diversity and open-mindedness.”

Has Turkey Outfoxed China in Azerbaijan to become a rising Eurasian power?

Emil Karabekian
Turkey Analyst
Jan 19 2021

By Michaël Tanchum

January  19, 2021

Turkey's decision to provide an unprecedented level of military assistance to Azerbaijan empowered Baku to achieve a resounding victory in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, changing the geopolitical rules of the game in the South Caucasus. Moreover, the war has enhanced Ankara's ability to project its influence in Central Asia. Benefiting from its inclusion in the Chinese-led BRI network of connectivity across Central Asia, Turkey may have outfoxed China in Azerbaijan to become a rising Eurasian power. Although Russia now has to tolerate the presence of Turkish troops on Azerbaijani soil, China may be the big strategic loser in the war's outcome.

 

 

BACKGROUND:  The November 10, 2020 ceasefire agreement created a corridor through Armenia connecting the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan to the rest of Azerbaijan – providing Turkey, which shares a border with Nakhichevan, with direct connectivity with Azerbaijan and access across the Caspian to all of Turkic Central Asia.  China has been wary of Turkey and apprehensive of its ability to spearhead a movement of Pan-Turkic solidarity that would include the Turkic Uighur minority of China’s Xinjiang province. Turkey is home to the Turkic Council (Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States, Türk Keneşi) and a highly active Uighur expatriate community. As mayor of Istanbul in 1995, now Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan built a memorial monument to Isa Yusuf Alptekin, leader of the short-lived East Turkestan Republic, defying Chinese protests. As Prime Minister, Erdoğan harshly condemned China's suppression of the July 2009 'riots' in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi and publicly declared China's actions to be "a kind of genocide."

As China’s gateway to Central Asia, Xinjiang is a critical launching point for Beijing's effort to create its Silk Road Economic Belt, an overland transit corridor for China-to-Europe trade (the "Belt" of China's massive Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI). Beijing seeks to secure the integration of the vast Xinjiang province within China and to project Chinese commercial hegemony westward across Central Asia. Turkic Uighurs, formerly a majority in Xinjiang, also known as East Turkestan, now constitute only about 45 percent of Xinjiang's population due to the heavy migration of ethnic Han Chinese as part of Beijing's Sinification program. To eradicate Uighur opposition to Beijing's agenda, upwards of one million Uighurs have been held in detention camps to undergo 'reeducation programs' to erase the Turkic Uighur Muslim identity of the population.

Nonetheless, Turkey shifted its earlier position and managed to assuage Beijing's concerns that it might pose a challenge to its agenda in Xinjiang and its larger BRI strategy in Central Asia.  Aside from a momentary diplomatic flare-up provoked by the prison death of the revered Uighur poet and traditional music performer Abdurehim Heyit, a popular figure in Turkey who bridged Uighur and Turkish Cultures,  Ankara has refrained from any sustained criticism of China over its Uighur policy. 

In 2014, China completed the construction of an Ankara-to-Istanbul, high-speed rail link.  The high-speed link was constructed in anticipation of the completion of the Baku-Tblisi-Kars (BTK) railway connecting Azerbaijan to Turkey via Georgia to provide the final link in a China-to-Europe overland transport route, via Kazakhstan, that entirely bypasses Russian territory.  Utilizing container transshipment from Kazakhstan’s main Caspian port Aktau to the specially-constructed port of Baku at Alat, the 826 km BTK rail line breaks Moscow’s stranglehold over China's Eurasian commercial transport by carrying Chinese goods through Azerbaijan for further transport across Georgia and Turkey to European markets. This Trans-Caspian Corridor is expected to transport 75,000-100,000 containers per year.

In 2015, President Erdoğan traveled to Beijing to meet with his Chinese counter-part to further solidify Sino-Turkish cooperation. In China, Turkey's president pledged his support for China's territorial integrity. In May 2016, Ankara demonstrated its increasing willingness to accommodate Beijing when, contrary to its usual practices concerning Uighur refugees, Turkey arrested 98 Uighurs en route overseas with forged passports.  In the wake of the failed July 2016 coup attempt during which the U.S. and Turkey's other Western allies refrained from providing robust support for President Erdoğan and his government, Turkey drew even closer to Beijing. On October 30, 2017 the BTK line was inaugurated, the same month that Beijing adopted its "Sinification of All Religions and Beliefs" program targeting the Uighurs.

Previously cautious about inviting Turkey to play a larger role in the BRI, Beijing became more amenable to utilizing Turkey's key geographical position as a land bridge between Asia and Europe. China's $3.6 billion loan package in 2018 seemed to indicate that Ankara's multi-year accommodation of China's policies in Xinjiang had paid off: Beijing relaxed the limits it had imposed on Sino-Turkish cooperation. Beijing's confidence in Ankara seemed to be well-placed.  In late 2018, Erdoğan's government rejected a parliamentary motion brought by the right-wing opposition İyi (Good) party to investigate human rights violation allegedly perpetrated by China against the Uighurs. 

In 2019, China extended its currency swap agreement with Turkey, providing an additional $1 billion cash transfer to Ankara. By the end of 2019, the number of Chinese containers transported across the Caspian Sea via the Trans-Caspian Corridor totaled 5,369 TEU, representing a 111% increase over the previous year.  On December 19, 2020, the first freight train carrying cargo from Turkey to China via the Trans-Caspian Corridor completed its historic trip.

IMPLICATIONS: China's acquiescence to Turkey playing a larger role as a transit state in its BRI commercial transport network was predicated upon two inherent constraints inhibiting Turkey from projecting its influence in Central Asia via Azerbaijan: the threat of a Russian backlash if Turkey intervened heavily in Azerbaijan, and second, the lack of Turkey's direct connectivity with Azerbaijan and its Caspian Sea access to Central Asia. Both of these constraints evaporated with the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. 

Moscow has acceded to the presence of Turkish military personnel on Azerbaijani soil and the creation of a commercial transportation corridor across Armenia connecting the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic and the western regions of Azerbaijan. For the first time since the Soviet army's conquest of Azerbaijan one hundred years ago, Turkey has direct connectivity with Azerbaijan and, via the Caspian Sea, to all of Turkic Central Asia. Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev hailed the  corridor as a "historic achievement" and government-aligned media in Turkey acclaimed the opening of a strategic Turkish corridor through Central Asia to the shores of the Pacific.

The Turkic Council, headquartered in Istanbul, is poised to be an important instrument through which Turkey could reorient Eurasian connectivity.  Established in 2009 with the signing of its founding charter in Nakhichevan, the Turkic Council's full members now are Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan, while not an official member, participates in several of the council's activities.  These six nations collectively comprise approximately 150 million people and have total GDP of about $1.5 trillion. The trade volume among them is approximately $16 billion with room for growth. On May 17, 2019, the members of Turkic Council created the Turkic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TCCI) as a subsidiary organization, to facilitate the unfettered flow of trade and economic cooperation.

Turkey has been engaged in a long term project to upgrade its domestic rail system, having committed total of $45 billion to the program through 2023. The BTK railway's initial capacity 6.5 million tons of freight and 1 million passengers per year is slated to increase to 17 million tons of freight and 3 million passengers with the line's future capacity expansion.  A new all Turkic rail corridor via Nakhchivan providing a second trans-Caspian route would increase commercial flows and provide Turkey greater leverage over Eurasian connectivity.

In April 2019, two container ships, Turkestan and Beket Ata, began service on the Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan route. Azerbaijan maintains commercial connectivity with Turkmenistan, thanks in no small part to Turkey's mediating role in facilitating a rapprochement between Baku and Ashgabat that enhanced economic and security cooperation between the two countries. In 2018, Turkey completed the construction of a new $2 billion port in Turkmenbashı. In 2019, 23,802 railway wagons traversed the Caspian between Turkmenistan's Turkmenbashı port and Baku, representing 54 percent of the Trans-Caspian railway wagon traffic passing through Baku port.

In addition to its enhanced ability to influence commercial flows in the south Caucasus and Central Asia, Turkey's empowerment of Azerbaijan to regain lost territory has increased Turkey's clout and bolstered its capacity to deploy pan-Turkic, soft power cultural instruments.

Immediately upon Azerbaijan's recapture of the city of Shusha, a historical center of Azerbaijani culture, Turkvision announced it would hold Turkvision 2021 in the recaptured city.  Inspired by the Eurovision song contest, Turkvision was created by the Turkic Council's cultural arm TÜRKSOY (International Organization of Turkic Culture) in cooperation with the Turkish music channel TMB TV.

Turkey's contribution to Azerbaijan's battlefield victory has also boosted Ankara's hard power outreach in Central Asia. In late October 2020 in the midst of the Karabakh war, Uzbekistan signed a military cooperation agreement with Turkey. Two weeks after the November 10 ceasefire, a delegation from Kazakhstan's Ministry of Defense visited Turkey's 14th Unmanned Aircraft Systems Base to examine Turkey's Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles and its facilities,” according to Turkey’s Ministry of Defense. Kazakhstan reportedly expressed interest in purchasing the Bayraktar TB2, following the Turkish-built drone's battlefield success against Armenia's Russian-made air defense systems. 

CONCLUSIONS: Beyond changing the map of the southern Caucasus, the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war has cemented Turkey's presence in Azerbaijan and enhanced Ankara's ability to project its influence in Central Asia. By changing the rules of the game in the South Caucasus, Turkey has also upended the geopolitics of connectivity in Central Asia, elevating itself from a transit state to one of the principal agenda-setters of Eurasian connectivity. 

Ankara is likely to capitalize on its new position and prestige by rededicating more of its efforts to deepening its level of economic and security cooperation with the Turkic states of Central Asia. As it does so, Turkey could increasingly hold the balance of power between Russia and China in the Eurasian architecture. From such a position of greater geopolitical strength, Turkey could conceivably elect to reverse its current acquiescence to China's Xinjiang policy and pressure Beijing as a power player within the emerging Eurasian architecture. 

The manner and extent to which Turkey succeeds in parlaying its soft and hard power gains from the Nagorno-Karabakh War to deepen its strategic partnerships in Central Asia will determine the scope of its power as a Eurasian actor. The outlook is promising.  Benefiting from its inclusion in the Chinese-led BRI network of connectivity across Central Asia, Turkey may have outfoxed China in Azerbaijan to become a rising Eurasian power.

 

 

AUTHOR’S BIO: 

Professor Michaël Tanchum teaches international relations of the Middle East and North Africa at the University of Navarra, Spain and is a Senior Fellow at the Austrian Institute for European and Security Studies (AIES). He also holds fellow positions at the Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, the Hebrew University, Israel, and at the Centre for Strategic Policy Implementation at Başkent University in Ankara, Turkey (Başkent-SAM).  @michaeltanchum

Professor’s Book Examines the History of the Armenians of Musa Dagh

Emil Lazarian
CSUN Today – California State University, Northridge
Jan 20 2021


Vahram Shemmassian, head of the Armenian Studies Program at California State University, Northridge, explores the history of Armenian resistance in the Musa Dagh region of the Ottoman Empire in his latest book.

Book cover for Musa Dagh: From Obscurity to Genocide Resistance and Fame 1840-1915

“The Armenians of Musa Dagh: From Obscurity to Genocide Resistance and Fame 1840-1915” is the second book by the Armenian scholar that chronicles the lives of the Armenian people living in the Ottoman Empire, as well as their resistance during the Armenian genocide. His first book in the series was “The Musa Dagh Armenians: A Socioeconomic and Cultural History, 1919-1939.”

Shemmassian said he sees parallels between what happened 100 years ago to what is happening today in the region, with the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh sandwiched between the two states. 

“Turkey has been providing Azerbaijan with arms, and terrorists from Syria to help dispose of Armenians and, more specifically, to ethnically cleanse the country in order to obtain land,” he said. “The same resistance against tyranny and extermination that happened in the past is occurring again now, as an attempt to fully dispose of Armenian culture and the people apart of it.”

“The Armenians of Musa Dagh” is a comprehensive history of the people of Musa Dagh, who rose to prominence with their resistance to the genocide in 1915. Shemmassian presents a thorough analysis of the social, economic, religious, educational, and political history of the six villages that constituted Armenian Musa Dagh. He focuses on the important period of the mid-19th to the early 20th century, offering new insights into the people whose courage and persistence ultimately led to their successful self-defense.

The last (and longest) chapter of his book details the Armenian resistance to genocide, he said.

“We are all angry about what’s happening with Armenia and Azerbaijan, because they are finishing what Turkey started during World War I,” Shemmassian said. “Many war crimes were committed against Armenia last year, almost identical to the genocide that was happening a century ago. 

In addition to his work, Shemmassian pointed to “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh,” a novel by Franz Werfel that tells the struggles the Armenian community faced, as a work that can help people understand, on a more intimate level, what happened to the Armenian people during the genocide..

The publication of “The Armenians of Musa Dagh” comes on the heels of an anonymous $3 million gift to CSUN’s Armenian Studies Program, to support research and scholarships for students.

Shemmassian said he hopes his books provide a historical context for what is happening in Armenia today, as the past continues to influence Armenians.

“The final product, the publication of my books, is the most fulfilling feeling that one can have,” he said. “They are a legacy. At some point, we all die. I’m glad that I’m leaving something behind for future generations to read and learn.” 

rs-book-examines-the-history-of-the-armenians-of-musa-dagh/?fbclid=IwAR30GFdDTNEvq9lsChLwrfzEhJ66HR5GQHNtlEDqmHGG8kaasYjk4dJNHIc

Armenia says to buy AstraZeneca vaccine for 3% of population

Ani Tigranian
Thomson Reuters
Jan 20 2021
by Reuters
Wednesday, 20 January 2021 15:51 GMT

YEREVAN, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Armenia has decided to buy the AstraZeneca vaccine to inoculate 3% of the population, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

Priority will be given to people aged over 65, those who have underlying health conditions and medical workers.

Armenia has recorded 165,221 cases of the coronavirus and 3,016 deaths. (Reporting by Nvard Hovhannisyan; Editing by Catherine Evans)

National Geographic: Genocidio armenio

Suren Karakhanian
National Geographic – Spanish Language
Jan 19 2021

Guiomar Huguet Pané

19 de enero de 2021 · 08:30 · Lectura:

 Genocidio armenio

Desde siglos atrás, una parte de la población armenia había vivido dentro de las fronteras turcas. La incomodidad que este pueblo provocaba en los otomanos había sido motivo de varios enfrentamientos y ataques directos por parte del estado. Pero no fue hasta 1915 y en mitad del caos provocado por el primer año de la Primera Guerra Mundial (1914-1918), cuando el Imperio otomano dirigió un ataque organizado e indiscriminado contra esta población de credo cristiano instalada al este del territorio turco. Hacia mayo de ese año empezaron las primeras deportaciones que terminaron por convertirse en marchas de la muerte, en las que los deportados debían cruzar el desierto sin ningún tipo de ayuda, pues el gobierno turco detuvo el transporte de cualquier suministro que pudiera ayudar a los armenios a alcanzar la frontera siria. En la imagen, una niña yace en el suelo en mitad del desierto víctima del hambre y el cansancio. Los paralelismos con el Holocausto son múltiples, pues el Imperio otomano, además de violaciones, torturas o expropiaciones impunes, también organizó campos de concentración y exterminio, usó personas para experimentos médicos y utilizó gas tóxico o quemó grupos de gente con el objetivo de terminar con el pueblo armenio. No existe consenso en el número de muertos, pero la mayoría de fuentes coinciden en que al menos más de un millón de personas fueron víctimas del genocidio.