Turkey crossed the red line with Armenia

The red line has been crossed. Turkish Air Force F-16s were deployed against Armenia and shot down an Armenian military aircraft amid the Azeri attack on Artsakh. For the first time after the 1920 Armenian-Turkish war, Turkey

Everything started on September 27th when the Azeri army launched a missile and aerial attack against Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh). This September war against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh is unprecedented based on scale, weapon caliber, and direct Turkish involvement. In July, Azerbaijan tested the waters by provoking a short term war in Armenia’s Tavush region; but, the attempt to start a new war was unsuccessful. However, it is clear from Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s current actions that unlike the July provocation, this time the two nations mean war.

In this article, I would like to present the peculiarities of the September war—mainly Turkey’s involvement in the war. It first began on September 25th, when information was leaked stating that the Turkish-Azerbaijani Air Force carried out a minimum of six flights to Azerbaijan, of which four flights were carried out by Turkish Airbus A400M-180 and two by Azerbaijani IL-76TD transport planes. That same day, the Azerbaijani military transport plane made two flights to Azerbaijan, after flying from Turkey to Israel. Furthermore, the Azerbaijan-Turkey-Israel-Turkey-Azerbaijan flight was serviced by the Azerbaijani Silk Way IL-76TD-90VD (registration number 4K-AZ101) transport aircraft. The Azerbaijani Silk Way planes also transport military cargo to Azerbaijan. Turkey and Israel are the main weapon suppliers for Azerbaijan; the numerous flights raised major suspicions for Armenia.

According to the Greek City Times, Turkey transferred its militant proxies based in northern Syria to Azerbaijan. Award-winning journalist Lindsey Snell—who was once kidnapped by Turkish-backed terrorists in northern Syria and then thrown into a Turkish jail for two months after escaping from Syria—wrote on Twitter that fighters from the Hamza Division had arrived via Turkey to Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital city. After the September 27th war began, reputable sources such as Forbes, The Guardian, and Reuters brought this to light.

According to Reuters, “The two fighters, from Turkish-backed rebel groups in areas of northern Syria under Turkish control, said they were deploying to Azerbaijan in coordination with Ankara.”

The Guardian states, “The potential deployment is a sign of Turkey’s growing appetite for projecting power abroad, and opens the third theatre in its regional rivalry with Moscow.”

Armenia is Turkey’s major obstacle—the only Christian country in the region, Armenia stands in the way of Turkey’s mission to succeed in the establishment of a pan-Turkic agenda. Pan-Turkism is a political movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the mission was to politically unite all Turkish-speaking peoples in the Ottoman Empire, Russia, China, Iran, and Afghanistan. A century ago, when Armenia was once again considered an obstacle for Turkey, the solution was to genocide native Armenians. Fast forward one century, and unpunished Turkey once again tries to commit a new crime against humanity. And yet, the world is silent again…

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The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is over Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh), a part of historical Armenia, and the Armenian populated autonomous region (89% of the population was Armenian during the Soviet time). By the will of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Artsakh was forced to join the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) in 1920. Following Gorbachev’s reforms (Perestroika) which began in 1988, the people of Artsakh raised their voices, using their constitutional rights, to secede from Azerbaijani SSR. As a result, Azerbaijani SSR imposed a war which ended in 1994 with the victory of the Armenian forces. Since 1992, Nagorno Karabakh has proclaimed its independence, but is currently an unrecognized republic. The main mediator of the ongoing negotiations is the OSCE Minsk Group; the Co-Chairs are from France, Russia, and the U.S.A. 

Source: moderndiplomacy.eu

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