Armenians in USA, France, Russia, Wider Diaspora and Armenia Hail Iran’s Opposition to Azerbaijan-Turkey’s Attempted Land-Grab in Syunik, Blocking Armenia-Iran Border.
Posted on August. 5. 2022
BY APPO JABARIAN
Executive
Publisher / Managing Editor
USA Armenian Life Magazine (English-language print edition)
USA Armenian Life E-Newsletter (Electronic Distribution — e-blast)
Hye Kiank Armenian Weekly (Armenian-language print edition)
USA Armenian Life FACEBOOK | www.armenianlife.com
Host, USA Armenian Life TV
On July 19, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned against attempts to “block” Armenia’s border with his country when he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Tehran.
Khamenei bluntly said to Erdogan: “If there is an effort to block the border between Iran and Armenia, the Islamic Republic will oppose it because this border has been a communication route for thousands of years.”
The Iranian leader’s principled stance has created a big buzz within wide circles of world Armenians. During numerous telephones, email and in-person conversations held with American Armenians, French Armenians, other Diaspora Armenians and homeland Armenians, many have expressed their gratitude to Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei.
While the Biden administration deserves kudos for recognizing the Turkish-executed 1915-1923 Armenian Genocide, it should be criticized for giving genocidal Azerbaijan further weapons that will ultimately be used to perpetrate new genocide against Armenians in Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh.
Despite ongoing Azerbaijani unrelenting aggression against Armenia and Artsakh, President Joe Biden has, yet again, waived Section 907 restrictions on US military aid to Azerbaijan, clearing the way for continued US assistance to the despotic, corrupt, anti-Armenian and genocidal Aliyev regime. This double standard should be addressed swiftly. As taxpayers, are fellow Americans agreeable to have the U.S. federal government to wittingly or unwittingly enable Turkic Azerbaijan to annihilate the indigenous Christian Armenians in Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia proper?
In the same token, is Russia’s President Putin comfortable with carrying out the ‘Weapons-For-Oil’ deal with Baku? Are Christian Russians agreeable to have the Russian Federation to wittingly or unwittingly enable Turkic Azerbaijan to annihilate the indigenous Christian Armenians in Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia proper?
The Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the war in Nagorno-Karabakh “commits Armenia to opening rail and road links between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan.” Nothing more. No land corridor. Nothing. However, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev unrealistically ‘insists’ on an exterritorial land corridor to be surrendered to Azerbaijan that would cut off from Iran, the Syunik/Zangezur — the sole Armenian province bordering Iran.
Turkish leaders and Erdogan in particular regularly parrot Aliyev’s demands for the “Zangezur corridor.”
Armenia has rightfully rejected these ridiculous ‘demands’, saying that Azerbaijani citizens and cargo cannot be exempt from Armenian border controls.
The root of today’s Artsakh conflict comes from about one hundred years ago, when Soviet Bolshevik occupation regime arbitrarily carved out the two Armenian territories of Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh and Nakhichevan and ‘gifted’ them to the then newly Sovietized Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic. It was basically Soviet Russian favor to Turkic Azerbaijanis at the expense of the indigenous Christian Armenians.
World Armenians are frustrated that the ‘Christian’ West along with ‘Christian’ Russia are playing deaf to Truth and Justice while Islamic Iran has shown remarkable respect to Christian Armenia. Now it is high time to do away with Western/Russian hypocrisy and do the right thing — Respect the indigenous Armenians’ right to hold onto the last remnant of ancestral historic Armenia under the shield of internationally-sanctioned Sovereignty, Independence and Defence.
The embattled Armenian nation has been subjected to the 1915-1923 Turkish-executed genocide; and to the ‘Second and Final’ genocidal campaigns in Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh in Fall 2020. The time has come for Armenians to remember that (‘odaren fayda chi ka’ – no benefit from aliens); and that they must rely on themselves just like General Njdeh and his motivated soldiers did, who successfully defended Syunik/Zangezur between December 1920 and July 1921 against 150,000 Kemalist Turkish army invading from the west, and 120,000 Soviet Red Army coming from Baku. In July 1921, the Soviet Kremlin finally gave in and submitted to General Njdeh’s demands to keep Syunik/Zangezur within the newly Sovietized Armenia. Nakhichevan and Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh were not as lucky.
Here is a major argument by world Armenians in favor of Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh and Nakhichevan’s Armenian status: The independent First Democratic Republic of Armenia of 1918-1920 was officially recognized by The League of Nations as a sovereign state that included Nakhichevan and Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh, but was illegally occupied by Soviet regime. Therefore any ‘agreement’ between Kemalist Turkey and Soviet Russia on carving out the First Armenian Republic’s lands and gifting them to Azerbaijan and Turkey should be rendered null and void and these territories should be reverted back to their rightful owner the Republic of Armenia.
As for the so-called ‘Azerbaijani corridor’ through Armenia’s Syunik/Zangezur, Tehran has effectively sided with Yerevan on the issue, repeatedly voicing support for Armenian sovereignty over transit roads passing through Armenia. Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reaffirmed this stance during a July 7 visit to the Armenian capital.
Last October, an influential Iranian cleric accused Aliyev of trying to “cut Iran’s access to Armenia.”
While in Tehran, Erdogan also held separate talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The latter mentioned “the settlement of the Karabakh problem” in his opening remarks at the talks.
Russia deployed soldiers and border guards to Syunik during and after the 2020 war to help the Armenian military defend the province against possible Azerbaijani attacks.
Visiting Yerevan last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that Armenia will control the planned road and railway that will connect Nakhichevan to the rest of Azerbaijan. Lavrov said the Armenian side will only simplify border crossing procedures.
In Fall 2020, Azerbaijan-Turkey-ISIS (Islamic State Terrorists) launched unprovoked terrorist attacks against Armenians of Artsakh Republic (Nagorno Karabakh Republic). Azerbaijan-Turkey-ISIS exploited the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic and U.S. preoccupation with American presidential elections, to execute the Second and Final Genocide of Armenians. During WWI, Turkey used the World War I as cover to perpetrate the First Genocide (1915-1923) and Massive Dispossession.
Patriotic forces both in the Armenian Diaspora and the twin Armenian republics should flex their muscles to empower the current and succeeding Armenian governments to not give in to unrealistic Pan-Turkic temper tantrums coming out of Ankara and Baku.
The Genocidal Twins — Erdogan and Aliyev are gravely mistaken that in the aftermath of the unprovoked Fall 2020 anti-Armenian terrorist aggression by Azerbaijan-Turkey-ISIS, Armenia-Artsakh may be pushed around. The Pan-Turkic expansionists in Azerbaijan and Turkey should be made aware that the Armenian Nation — Homeland + Diaspora Armenians have birthrights to enhance Armenia and Artsakh Sovereignty, Independence And Defense in every possible way.
They should also be reminded that Armenia and Artsakh are not and will not be abandoned to their fate. It is the opposite. Now more than ever before, the Armenian Nation is determined to exercise their National Right to Self-Determination in what’s left of their ancestral homeland. And that’s not subject to any kind of negotiations.
While Russia and the West are competing for influence in Ukraine, they could cooperate in the South Caucasus. If the United States and Russia can compartmentalize their relations and conflicts elsewhere to cooperate in the International Space Station, they can surely cooperate in the South Caucasus to create and maintain International Law-And-Order.
The international community organizations and members – The United Nations (UN), The European Union (EU), along with regional and world major powers such as United States, France, Russia, Japan, China, India, and Iran have the fiduciary duty to impose the international Rule of Law and a) Assist Armenia maintain and enhance its sovereignty over all of its territories including the southern Syunik/Zangezur region; b) Assist Artsakh Republic/Nagorno Karabakh to be internationally recognized as a sovereign and independent state.