by Chris Summers
Oct 14, 2020
Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of breaching a humanitarian ceasefire agreed over the weekend to stop fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. The Armenian diaspora is spread around the world and includes Kim Kardashian, who has tweeted about Nagorno-Karabakh to her 67 million Twitter followers.
Armenia claims the fighting began when Azerbaijan, supported by Turkey, attacked Armenian positions in Nagorno-Karabakh on 27 September. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev insisted the opening shots were fired by the Armenians.
Ara Iskanderian, a British Armenian lawyer and historian who lives in London, explains how he sees the conflict and its historical context and how it affects the Armenian diaspora around the world.
Sputnik: Firstly, how is the war going as you understand it? Both sides claimed to have inflicted damage on the other side but have either side made any significant territorial gains?
Mr Iskanderian: The human cost to the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh has been tremendous. Officially the authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh are reporting the death of nearly 500 servicemen. There has been an exodus of ethnic Armenian civilians, half the population of Nagorno-Karabakh has been displaced by Azerbaijani shelling, rocket attacks, and cluster bombs, which Amnesty International have now confirmed. For the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh this is not about gaining territory, it is about defending their homes and the land upon which they have lived on for centuries. For them, it is a defensive war.
The President of Azerbaijan has listed seven villages as being taken by the Azerbaijani army, if that is true, then the place names he has listed are close to the frontline and particularly the Iranian border, which would explain the Iranian concerns that shells are landing on their side of the border and their concerns about being drawn in.
‘Deplorable Human Cost’
The human cost has been called out as deplorable by France, Russia, the US, the UK, Iran, Greece, the list goes on…Turkey seems to be alone in supporting continued military operations. The truth is there is no military solution to this, as frustrating as it might be for all sides, negotiation is key.
Sputnik: Turkey says it fully supports Azerbaijan but has denied sending Syrian fighters to the front. Ankara has said it would favour talks involving Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia and Turkey
URGENT! Morning shelling of Aghdam, Goranboy, Tartar and Aghjabedi regions of #Azerbaijan by armed forces of Armenia. #Armenia violating its own commitment to humanitarian ceasefire.#KarabakhIsAzerbaijan#StopArmenianAggression#StopAttackingCivilians
— MFA Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 (@AzerbaijanMFA) October 13, 2020
Sputnik: Can you briefly explain the Armenian position. Technically they are occupying the land (Nagorno-Karabakh and bits of Azerbaijan proper) which they seized illegally in the early 1990s. But that is obviously not how Armenians see it.
Mr Iskanderian: Armenia and Azerbaijan are independent republics whose internationally recognised borders are the very same borders that both polities enjoyed when they were both part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR…Within the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic was a large Armenian population -approximately 350,000, roughly 150,000 of them lived in a compact area of settlement in the mountainous part of Karabakh. This area was delineated during the drawing of internal borders under Stalin and made an autonomous region: Nagorno-Karabakh, but within Azerbaijan. This was part of a Stalinist logic of divide and rule. The autonomous region was to serve as an apple of discord between the two internal republics.
You will see on a map that, again as part of a Stalinist logic of divide and rule, Nagorno-Karabakh was deliberately delineated so as to deny it a border with Armenia
