Adonis Diaries

Posts Tagged ‘Caucasus

Why Israel and the US consider Armenia as the enemy?

L’état hébreu dans les coulisses du conflit Azerbaïdjan-Arménie.

Since early October, Israel was shipping by air drones and missiles to Azerbaijan. Israel has been training this State security institution.

By Dominique Delawarde.

Les médias mainstream occidentaux ont beaucoup insisté sur le rôle majeur et indéniable de la Turquie dans la crise opposant l’Arménie à l’Azerbaïdjan, mais ils sont restés extrêmement et étonnamment discrets, voire silencieux sur le rôle tout aussi important, joué, en coulisse, par Israël, et sur son positionnement dans cette affaire.

Ce rôle n’a pourtant pas pu échapper à un géopoliticien ou à un observateur averti

Il y a les discrètes navettes aériennes entre Tel Aviv et Bakou qui, au début d’octobre transportaient de l’armement sophistiqué (notamment des drones et des missiles).

Une part non négligeable de l’armement azéri est d’origine israélienne.

Il faut rappeler que l’Azerbaïdjan est le premier pourvoyeur de pétrole d’Israël et lui fournit 40% de ses besoins.

Ceci suffirait presque à expliquer l’alliance de fait, entre les deux pays, alliance basée sur une sorte d’échange « pétrole contre armement ».

Il y a la relative discrétion des chancelleries et des médias occidentaux – dont on sait qui les contrôle – sur l’ingérence ouverte de la Turquie, pays membre de l’OTAN, contre l’Arménie, pays membre de l’OTSC (Organisation du Traité de Sécurité Collective) aux côtés de la Russie.

La coalition occidentale a bien protesté du bout des lèvres: elle a bien appelé « à la retenue » et au « cessez le feu », mais elle a laissé faire la Turquie sans vraiment dénoncer son impérialisme islamiste, désormais tous azimuts (Syrie, Irak, Libye, Méditerranée orientale, Caucase).

Il y a encore la prise de position officielle de Zelenski, premier président juif d’Ukraine, en faveur de l’Azerbaïdjan, et contre l’Arménie.

Il y a enfin cette déclaration de Georges Malbrunot, grand reporter au Figaro qui nous apprend dans un tweet :

Conflit au Nagorny-Karabakh : au-delà de la station du Mossad basée en Azerbaïdjan pour espionner l’Iran et de la livraison de matériels militaires à Bakou, Israël entraîne les forces de sécurité azéris, confie un diplomate européen, qui fut basé en Azerbaïdjan.

Mais pourquoi l’État hébreu se distingue-t-il aujourd’hui, par sa présence et son action dans cette région du monde aux côtés de la Turquie, de l’Azerbaïdjan et du djihadisme islamiste ?
Il faut se rappeler que l’activisme d’Israël sur la scène internationale n’est pas que régional, mais mondial. Il peut être direct ou indirect.
Son empreinte est souvent perceptible et parfaitement identifiable dans la politique étrangère des grands pays occidentaux (USA, UK, FR, Canada, Australie), mais elle l’est aussi dans presque tous les grands événements qui ont affecté l’évolution géopolitique mondiale des dernières décennies: (guerres au Proche et Moyen-Orient, révolutions colorées et/ou changement de pouvoir (ou tentatives) notamment en Amérique du Sud (Brésil, Bolivie, Venezuela, Colombie, Équateur) mais aussi en Europe (Maïdan …) et en Afrique du Nord (printemps arabes, hirak algérien).
À noter aussi l’ingérence plus ou moins ouverte dans les élections des grands pays de la coalition occidentale (USA, FR, UK, Canada, Australie) par des financements généreux de sa diaspora visant à promouvoir les candidats qui lui sont favorables et à détruire ceux qui ne le sont pas.

Cet activisme pro-israélien s’exerce par le biais d’une diaspora riche, puissante et organisée.

Cette diaspora  collectionne les postes d’influence et de pouvoir, plus ou moins « achetés » au fil du temps et des circonstances, au sein des appareils d’État, au sein des médias mainstream, au sein des institutions financières et des GAFAM qu’elle contrôle.

Le Mossad n’est pas en reste et fonde l’efficacité de son action sur le système des sayanims, parfaitement décrit par Jacob Cohen dans sa conférence de Lyon.

L’action de ces relais et soutiens vise à défendre et à promouvoir les intérêts directs et indirects de l’État hébreu sur la planète entière et à élargir le cercle des pays et des gouvernances qui le soutiennent.

Elle vise aussi à affaiblir celles et ceux qui lui sont opposés. Elle est tenace, efficace et s’inscrit dans la durée.

Pour gagner, l’État hébreu, comme le fait aussi très bien l’OTAN, n’hésite jamais à faire des alliances de circonstance, limitées dans l’espace et dans le temps, avec tel ou tel de ses adversaires (Turquie et djihadistes en Syrie par exemple).

Ses actions sont souvent « préméditées », « concoctées » et « coordonnées » avec ses correspondants « néoconservateurs » de Washington. Comme partout ailleurs le mensonge d’État et la duplicité sont monnaies courantes…

Pourquoi susciter et/ou mettre de l’huile sur le feu dans un conflit entre l’Azerbaïdjan et l’Arménie et pourquoi maintenant ?

Trois grands pays de la région, la Russie, la Turquie et l’Iran, sont directement concernés par ce conflit et par ses conséquences potentielles, parce qu’ils sont frontaliers avec l’une des deux parties en conflit, et parfois les deux.

Israël, pour sa part, n’est qu’indirectement concerné, mais l’est tout de même.

Cette région du Caucase est également une «zone de friction» entre des alliances qui ne s’apprécient pas vraiment: La coalition occidentale et l’OTAN dont la Turquie et Israël jouent la partition, l’OTSC (Organisation du Traité de Sécurité Collective) dont la Russie et l’Arménie sont membres, et l’OCS (Organisation de Coopération de Shangaï) à laquelle la Russie et l’Iran sont liés (pour l’Iran, comme membre observateur et aspirant candidat depuis 15 ans).

Pour compliquer le tout, le premier ministre arménien en fonction, Nikol Pashinyan, a cru bon de devoir afficher sa préférence pour l’Occident dès sa prise de fonction et de prendre ses distances avec Moscou, ce qui met son pays en position délicate pour réclamer aujourd’hui l’aide de la Russie.

Le déclenchement de la crise actuelle est une opération qui dépasse largement le cadre étroit d’un conflit territorial entre l’Azerbaïdjan et l’Arménie.

Il s’agit d’une opération de plus – après Maïdan en Ukraine, après la tentative de révolution colorée en Biélorussie et après les affaires Skripal et Navalny – visant à mettre la pression sur la Russie, mais aussi sur l’Iran, en les mettant dans l’embarras, voire, en les poussant à la faute.

Il est clair que toute intervention rapide et musclée de la Russie dans ce conflit aurait été immédiatement condamnée par la « communauté internationale autoproclamée » – c’est à dire par l’OTAN – et suivie de l’habituel train de sanctions anti-russes, par les USA, servilement suivis par ses vassaux européens. 

Il ne faut pas oublier qu’aujourd’hui, mettre un terme au gazoduc North Stream II reste un objectif majeur pour les USA…

L’absence d’une ferme réaction des occidentaux dans la crise du Caucase est, en elle- même, révélatrice sur quatre points :

1 – La défense de l’Arménie n’est pas une priorité pour la coalition occidentale. Monsieur Nikol Pashinyan, premier ministre arménien, s’est donc trompé de cheval en misant sur l’Occident pour la défense de son pays. La coalition occidentale laisse souvent tomber ses alliés de circonstance comme ils l’ont fait pour les Kurdes en Syrie…

2 – En atermoyant et en laissant venir une réaction russe qu’elle espère pouvoir sanctionner en mettant définitivement fin au North Stream II, la coalition occidentale montre, une fois de plus, sa duplicité et son cynisme. Peu lui importe l’Arménie…

3 – En créant un foyer d’infection djihadiste aux frontières de la Russie et de l’Iran, la coalition israélo-occidentale montre, une fois de plus, qu’elle est prête à pactiser avec le diable et à l’instrumentaliser pour parvenir à ses fins, en l’occurrence l’affaiblissement de ses  adversaires russes et iraniens.

4 – En laissant agir la Turquie et Israël sans réaction, la coalition occidentale reconnaît implicitement, derrière des discours trompeurs, que ces deux pays agissent à son profit.

Le quotidien israélien « The Jerusalem Post » a abordé dans un article récent les affrontements entre l’Azerbaïdjan et l’Arménie non sans laisser éclater la joie israélienne de voir le Caucase devenir un nouveau foyer de crise potentiellement susceptible d’avoir un impact considérable sur le Moyen-Orient.

L’impact recherché par Israël est toujours le même : alléger les pressions et les actions iraniennes et russes sur le théâtre syrien en ouvrant un « nouveau front de préoccupations » aux frontières de ces deux pays.

En conclusion, quatre points méritent d’être soulignés, à ce stade de la crise,

1 – Monsieur Pashinyan, premier ministre arménien, a fait une erreur d’appréciation en misant sur un camp occidental qui s’avère moins fiable que prévu pour défendre l’intérêt de son pays. Il devra, peut être, in fine, faire des concessions douloureuses et pourrait bien y perdre son emploi lors des prochaines élections.

2 – Monsieur Aliyev, président de l’Azerbaïdjan majoritairement chiite, regrettera peut être un jour d’avoir introduit sur son sol des djihadistes sunnites pour combattre l’Arménie. I

l regrettera peut-être aussi l’instrumentalisation dont il est l’objet par la Turquie et Israël, chevaux de Troie de l’OTAN. Ses voisins russes et iraniens ne  lui pardonneront pas facilement…

3 – La Russie, dont la gouvernance et la diplomatie ne sont pas nées de la dernière pluie, n’est toujours pas tombée, tête baissée, dans le piège de l’intervention immédiate et musclée qui pourrait, après la tragi-comédie « Navalny », sonner le glas du North Stream II.

Elle interviendra, tôt ou tard, lorsque le bon moment sera venu. Les différents protagonistes directs et indirects ne perdront rien pour attendre.

4 –  Israël et l’Occident otanien auront-ils gagné quelque chose à poursuivre leurs  actions de harcèlement aux frontières de la Russie et de l’Iran en instrumentalisant l’Azerbaïdjan et en cherchant à détacher l’Arménie de l’OTSC dans le cadre de la stratégie d’extension à l’Est qu’ils poursuivent depuis trente ans ? Rien n’est moins sûr. L’avenir nous le dira.

Quant à la solution du problème territorial, source du conflit déclenché par l’Azerbaïdjan-contre l’Arménie, elle réside probablement dans l’application de l’article 8 du Décalogue de l’Acte final d’Helsinki voté le 1e août 1975 qui régit les relations internationales entre les états participants. Cet article évoque clairement « le droit des peuples à disposer d’eux-mêmes ».

Lorsqu’une volonté de quitter un ensemble étatique est validé par un, voire plusieurs référendums à plus de 90%, et lorsque cette sécession a été effective durant 34 ans, sans conflit majeur – ce qui est le cas pour la république d’Artsakh (Haut-Karabakh)-,  il semble légitime que la communauté internationale puisse prendre en compte la volonté des peuples et d’accepter de reconnaître ce fait en dotant ces nouveaux états d’une structure juridique particulière leur garantissant une paix sous protection internationale.

On me rétorquera que l’article 3 du même décalogue d’Helsinki rappelle l’intangibilité des frontières.

Il s’agira pour la communauté internationale, de déterminer si le droit des peuples à disposer d’eux même doit primer, ou non, sur l’intangibilité des frontières, après 34 ans de séparation totale et effective de vie commune entre deux parties d’un même état.

Cette décision, lorsqu’elle sera prise, ne devrait pas être sans conséquences jurisprudentielles sur le futur du Kosovo, de la Crimée, ou de la Palestine occupée…

Pour ceux qui souhaitent élargir et diversifier leurs connaissances sur ce sujet sensible, je suggère la lecture de deux articles intéressants :

– un article de Jean Pierre Arrignon, historien byzantiniste et spécialiste de la Russie

– un éditorial de Eric Denécé, patron du CF2R (Centre Français de Recherche sur le Renseignement sous le titre : « Le conflit Arménie/Azerbaïdjan au Haut-Karabakh relancé par la Turquie ».

– Un article de source azérie permettant de mieux comprendre la place du mouvement sioniste en Azerbaïdjan:

– Un autre article de DD (février 2017) expliquant les relations croisées entre la Russie, les USA et Israël et susceptible d’éclairer le sujet d’aujourd’hui:

Baku of 1901: Paris of the Orient Gate?

By 1900, Baku (Capital of Azerbaijan on the Black Sea) was the center of oil production and it supplied half the world’s demands.

The Swedish Alfred Nobel (inventor of dynamite) and his brother ran the first oil tanker named “Zarathustra”; a fitting name since Baku was then the main religious city of the Yazd sect that worshiped the sun and fire since antiquity.

Oil was known for thousands of years in this region, and Baku was the religious capital of the Zarathustra sect after Islam invaded Iran in around 650 AC.   And Azerbaijan became the main Islam Chiaa sect region before Iran adopted that sect in the 18th century.  Actually, many Persian monarchs and dynasties were originated from Azeri khans or tribal leaders in Azerbaijan.

For thousands of years, Baku was lighted at night from the burning oil on the surface of the Black Sea.  Burning waves lighted the night and hit the shores.  After kerosene was distilled in the 20th century, using kerosene lamps were common household appliances in Baku, Russia, and the neighboring regions of the Caucasus.

Baku was the richest city in the Caucasus and rivaled New York, London, and Paris in attracting immigrants and investors.

Baku became an Oriental city competing in its modernity with Paris: elegance in residences and fashion were widespread among all ethnic and religious minorities living in the ultimate of capitalist system of “laissez fair” mind of doing business.  It was a typical “frontier” city where millionaires and the poorest classes of oil workers cohabited.

Baku is a terrible windy city all year round and its soil is muddy black, soaked with oil; but wealth overcomes many climatic disadvantages.

In 1905, widespread revolts swept all over Russia to the borders with Korea.  Everyday, hundreds of politicians and civil servants were assassinated and pogroms were common.

Tsar Nicolas II decided on giving war to Japan in order to appease the revolts.  The Tsar imagined that a quick victory over “these tiny monkeys with short tails” will galvanize the Russian citizens into patriotic zeal.  Russia was quickly defeated; the entire Russian Pacific Navy sunk and hundreds of thousand of Russian soldiers were annihilated by Japanese machine guns in Mongolia.

The Russian revolts intensified.  The only remaining Russian Navy in the Black Sea was overrun my sailors and their officers slaughtered (the Potemkin debacle).  Tsar Nicolas promised a Constitution.  The Cossack cavalry understood Constitution to mean total freedom of doing what they pleased.  Hundreds of pogroms were daily occurrences in Belorussia and Ukraine (formerly belonging to the Catholic Polish Kingdom before 1772.)

The pogroms reached Baku.

The first minority victims were the Armenians who were well established and lived comfortably out of commerce and lending money.  For days, thousands of Armenians were massacred before the Cossacks managed to restore a semblance of security.

Between 1905 and 1917, Baku was kidnapped by a multitude of revolutionary groups that robbed banks, and asked for ransoms.  Joseph Stalin, under the code name of Koba and who was 28 years old, was leading the Bolshevik groups that asked ransoms in order to provide protection for minority ethnic groups.

The Communist Revolution of 1917 ruined Baku in 1920 as a prosperous city; mass transfers of population and assassinations were systematically applied.

Note:  Topic extracted from “The Orientalist” by Tom Reiss

“This condensed black energy of hates”; (March 1, 2010)

          “In Russia, soldiers are no better than dirt under officers’ boots.  What to think of an army where over 500 soldiers died in 2002, the equivalent of an entire battalion, just for bad treatments and bullying practices?  Mothers of soldiers have to fight against this monstrous army that devours its children.  This army system functions as a closed cultist prison” wrote Anna Politkovskaia, a journalist investigator to the daily Novaia Gazeta.

          Anna Politkovskaia, casually called Ania, flew to Chechnya 70 times within 7 years to cover the second war there and witness the atrocities and tortures; she was practically the only reporter to dare venture cover this second  war.  The first war in Chechnya (1994-96) was an object of mass demonstrations in Russia but this time around an ominous silence and media blackout was the rule over Russia.  Ania was the journalist who made waves and exposed President Poutine and the army with relentless and repeated targeted articles, strong with accurate details and names.       

          Ania interviewed mothers of soldiers which broke the deathly silence thanks to the eye-witness accounts of afflicted mothers: the Russian army in Chechnya was experiencing mass suicides of soldiers who could no longer suffer the heavy handed practices of the army and its cruel regulations. Young soldiers returned to civilian life unprepared, indifferent, and totally disorganized because the government had already forgotten them.  Most of them ended up delinquents and returned to prisons for callous activities, cold killing, and total despise of civilian life: crimes committed in the Caucasus accelerated the running wild of militaristic spirits.

          What drove Ania to anger was “the total silence of the Russian people is the prime phenomenon of the current political life today.  This system exists because the Russians have been frightened to silence.”  Ania played the mediator in 2002 to the Doubrovka hold up where hundreds of civilians were attending the musical comedy “North-East”.  The Russian commando stormed the theater using poisonous gas killing 170 civilians and injuring 500.  She also tried to mediate the Beslan hold up of a school in 2004.  The Russian authorities did their best to prevent Ania from reaching the location in Ossetia and poisoned her on her flight to the hold up.  32 Chechnya combatants were stormed by the Russia commando killing 300 kids, 11 soldiers, and 31 of the hostage takers.

          Ania was born in the US when her Ukrainian father was assigned to the UN; she lived in Russia most of her life. In October 2006 Ania was assassinated in front of her apartment.  She had a rough day: she had visited her sick mother with cancer at the hospital and paid a visit to her expecting daughter.  She used to call Poutine “The Tchekist” in reference to the Tcheka, the immediate ancestor to the KGB at the beginning of the communist regime.  Four other journalists working for Novaia Gazeta were assassinated in 2009: this daily was the sole media opened to opposition opinions.

          After the assassination of Ania, Poutine cynically commented “her influence on Russian society was insignificant.  Her assassination will cause more harm to Russia than her articles.” After Anna Politkovskaia death, her articles and diary were published and then translated in many languages. She kept a “Journal of an angry woman” that started in December 2003 to August 2006 where she reported her diary and her field investigation to the lowest quarters in Moscow.  In her diary Ania stated “The world is afraid of nuclear catastrophes; I am scared of hatred; feelings of hates are nested in the deep guts of Russians.  This condensed black energy of hatred!”

Mutual genocide: Armenians and Turks

 Note: The Armenians in Lebanon demonstrated yesterday against the potential accord between Armenia and Turkey.  What is the story?

            There are geographical locations and regions that are cursed historically.  This essay is not about cities that experienced frequent disasters by natural calamities; for example, we have cities that had vanished because built near active volcanoes such as Pompeii in Italy, others because of being located on seismic faults such as Beirut and lately the Abruzzi region in Italy, and others succumbing to tidal waves and hurricanes such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, the USA Gulf regions, and Rangoon where people perish by the hundred of thousands every year and keep rebuilding in the same devastated areas. 

This article is about cities located on major trade routes and suffered recurring genocides because of human greed for domination and power.  I will focus on the city of Karss in Turkey on the eastern side of the Anatolia Plateau (Anadol).  Karss is built by the river Karss and a must cross location on the route from Georgia, Tabriz (Iran), the Caucasus and Tiflis. I urge my readers to recollect other cursed cities through history.

Eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus form one homogeneous geographic area in economy, culture, and social communication and trades. The Armenians on both sides preferred to pay allegiance to Christian Russia and wished that Russia would grant them administrative autonomy in the Caucasus; the Moslems on both sides paid allegiance to the Moslem Ottoman Empire. The triangle of the current States of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan were the scenes of major battle fields and invasions through history and is still a hot area till now.

            The Nobel Literature Prize winner Orhan Pamuk published “Snow” that described the calamities suffered by the inhabitants of the Karss region.  The Armenian people lived in that region for a thousand years and then many waves of immigrants and refugees from persecutions flocked to it.  The Karss region hosted people from the Empires of Persia, Byzantium and then Moguls, Georgians, Kurds, and Cherkessk. In the 17th century, the Karss region was predominantly of Moslems and then Armenians were second in numbers.

The Russian Empire vied for this region since the 18th century. In 1827, Russia entered Karss and chased out over 27,000 Moslems and transferred 45,000 Armenians to this city from Iran and the Anatolian Plateau. The city of Yerevan (Capital of the current State of Armenia) that was mostly of Iranians was transformed demographically in 1827.  In every Russian invasion to the Karss region, the Russian troops could rely on the Armenian population for auxiliary regiments, logistics, and intelligence services. As the Russian troops vacated the region in 1829, over 90,000 Armenians fled with the Russians fearing well deserved persecutions.

During the Crimea War, that confronted Russia against the combined alliance of Britain, France, and the Ottoman, the Russians put siege on Karss in 1855 for many months and all the Ottoman army within the city was massacred.  The Paris treaty of 1855 forced the Russians to vacate the Karss region. The Ottoman troops retaliated heavily on the Armenians.

In 1859, the Cherkessk, led by their leader Shamel, revolted against the Russians and were defeated; many Christian Russian Orthodox were transferred to Karss to replace the Moslem Cherkessk.  The same eviction process befell three-quarter of the Moslems of Abkhazia in 1867.  Thus, in less than 30 years, the Russian Empire changed the demographics of the Caucasus from mostly Moslems to mostly Christians. Over 1, 200,000 Moslems were forced to transfer to other regions; 800,000 of the Moslems settled in the Ottoman Empire. 

In 1877, the Russians amassed troops on the border with Karss; Sultan Abdel Hamid preempted the invasion by massacring the Armenians on ground that they will inevitably aid the Russians. After 93 days of war, the Russians entered Karss and a pogrom on the Moslems proceeded for many days. The treaty of San Estephanos relinquished the region to the Russian Empire. The Russians built a new city south of the city of Karess where the Emperor Alexander III met with his concubines and hunted. In the next 43 years, the Armenians harassed the Moslems of this region and thousand had to flee. In retaliation, Sultan Abdel Hamid formed in 1891 a special regiment of Kurdish cavalry with the purpose of harassing the Armenians of the Karss region and the pogrom around Lake Van raised an outcry in Europe.

During the First World War, the Armenians again aided the Russians and formed semi-regular armies to fight the Ottoman Empire.  Consequently, in 1915, the Ottoman Empire launched the genocide plan against the Armenians and thousands died of famine during the long march out of Turkey; the Armenians settled in Constantinople (Istanbul) and Adana shared in the mass persecution; only the Armenians in the Caucasus, within Russia, were spared.  The British occupied the Karss region in 1919 and gave some authority to the Armenians who gathered arms from the Moslems and gave them to the Armenians and another round of harassment and massacres took place.

The Turkish General Mustafa Kemal re-occupied the Karss region in 1920 after defeating the Armenian army: the Bolsheviks were then allied to the new Turkish Republic. The Russians transferred the Armenians from the region of Patum to Yerevan.

In 1927, all the properties of the Armenians in Karss were confiscated. The Armenians were robbed of a homeland because Turkey ceased Cyprus to Britain in exchange of guaranteeing the Karss region to Turkey.  Mustafa Kemal (Attaturk) also negotiated a political deal with France to relinquish the Syrian region of Alexandrite to Turkey, setting the premises for future regional feuds.

Nowadays, there are no Armenians in Karss; the imposing buildings of Tsarist Russia are government Administrative offices; a vast villa of 40 rooms is transformed into hospital, and a Jewish museum. An entire century of struggles, massacres, harassments, genocides, and useless hate to their neighbors in order to gain self-autonomy rewarded the Armenians nothing.  They had to wait for the break down of the Soviet Union to enjoy the Armenian State that is totally dependent in its economy on the neighboring States.  Kosovo, Kashmir, Jerusalem, Gaza, and Palestine are current examples of lost opportunities for stability and peace.

Armenia and Turkey owe each other deep apologies for the mutual genocide they perpetrated in history.  I applaud the rapprochement between the two neighboring states as a start for serious active and pragmatic apology and remuneration.

Modern Day Crusaders: The Ashkenazi Spearhead “Jews”, (April 27, 2009)

Brief Ancient history:  Many waves of Crusading forces assembled in Medieval Europe with the avowed purpose of recapturing the Holy City of Jerusalem from the hands of the Moslem “Infidels”.

The successive crusading invasions were mainly of trading nature: the wealthy European new class of merchants wanted a cheaper trade for securing the spice and perfume routes of India and the Far-East Asia via Egypt.

The Crusaders failed to capture Egypt on 3 occasions and the objective of investing money in order to securing cheaper spices and perfumes that were transported by land routes through Iran and Turkey did not generate any return and the Crusading campaigns stopped.

The maritime crusading campaigns restarted in the 16th centuries by Portugal and Spain.

India and the Far Eastern Asian, sources of spices, perfume, and gold were colonized and maritime stronghold ports were established around Africa, India, Yemen, and the Persian/Arabia Sea.  The British recaptured most of these colonies and trading posts (comptoirs) and secured the direct administration of Egypt.

Slightly Modern history:  Britain, France, and Russia realized that it is too costly to colonize the former empires of Iran and Turkey for no major returns, since raw materials could be obtained relatively cheaply by maritime routes. Their best strategy was to weaken these nations and nibble on their neighboring regions.

Russia got interested in the Caucasus triangle of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia.

France was interested in Syria and Lebanon.

Britain got mandate power over Iraq, Jordan, and Palestine.

And then oil was discovered in abundance in this region, starting in southern Iran around 1906.

The First World War used mechanized troops; diesel engines were substituted to vapor engines as mechanical workhorse for industries.

The USA got in the fray since 1920 for oil explorations in the Arabic peninsula and exhibited its colonial ambitions by conquering Cuba and the Philippines from Spain in 1911.

Modern history:  Britain enticed the Hashemite king of Mecca, supposedly from the same Quraich tribe of the Prophet Muhammad, to support the war effort against the Moslem Ottoman Empire.

Britain quickly realized that the Near Eastern population (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine) would not mind a “nominal” nomadic king from Mecca, but the Levantine people were too independent and urban to relinquish their desires for autonomy.

Consequently, Britain and France decided that it would be too risky to allow the Near Eastern people to unite under a vital and critical Nation.

The alternative was found by using the Zionist movement as a spearhead to disrupting any unification of the region.  The British Foreign Affairs Balfour issued in 1917 a declaration of intent favorable to the settlement of the Zionist movement in Palestine.

In the same year, Britain and France decided to split their mandated powers over the Near East.  Consequently, the Ashkenazi “Jews” of Central Europe, were encouraged to build agricultural colonies in Palestine in order to establishing a “Jewish Homeland” with avowed purpose of re-capturing the Jewish Holy City of Jerusalem.

The modern crusade of the western nations is cloaked in Jewish biblical claims to destabilize this strategic region.

Since 1920, the Ashkenazi Jews were directed by International Zionism to buy and settle Palestine and it was supported by the European governments of Britain and France.

The beginning of Nazi Germany persecutions of Jews in 1933 encouraged the European nations to transfer the Jews to Palestine in order not to alienate Nazi Germany and succumb to its demands for repatriation of the Ashkenazi “Jews” into concentration camps.

It does not mean that the plan to establishing a “Homeland” for the Ashkenazi Jews was inevitable or that the people in the Near East were not aware of the plan and its existential danger.  The main troubles were:

First, this region had not credible institutions and lacked unified organizations to counter politically this harrowing plan;

Second, the surrounding empires of Turkey, Iran, and Egypt were struggling for survival and had no immediate interests in their backyard; and

Third, the mandate superpowers of Britain and France controlled and managed the region and its policies.

The people in the Near East are aware that the State of Israel is a western implant of the same kind of crusadering campaigns in the first millennia. The Zionist ideology prevented the leadership in Israel in alleviating and changing this perception for over 60 years.

There are indications that the USA and Europe comprehend that the game is over and are drawing plans for the counter immigration of the Ashkenazi to their original homelands.

The Sephardic Jews have practically nowhere to go, and they will manage to integrate Palestine as they did since ancient times.

It would be beneficial for the western nations to change their policies of “divide to dominate” in the Near East and start negotiating with the national resistance forces, even if they offer the image of religious resistance forces, because this is the most potent factor when secular conditions are weak.

The western nations need to negotiate with all resistances forces in the region as national resistance to a foreign implant, so that the new emerging nation does not fall to the extremist conservative religious ideologies.

This is a long term fight of 20 years and the secular democratic forces in the Near East need to have an opportunity for a fighting chance.

Note: I am perfectly aware that many would use the dismissive “anti-semitism” cliché in emulation of the lazy media approach to hot issues.  It is interesting to realize that effective and valuable communication is based on personal reflection with rational thinking as guiding rod.

Turkey and Iran: Same and Different (April 25, 2009)

 

Brief history

hroughout antiquity till our modern days, three main empires dominated the landscape of the Middle East. Turkey, Iran, and Egypt were vast empires and advanced urbanely and economically before the advent of Islam.

Turkey and Iran managed to enjoy a semi-continuous existence of empires but Egypt had large vacuums of many centuries in between empires since the Pharaohs.

Egypt enjoyed special status during the Greek, Roman, Arab, and Ottoman empires and was a world apart as wheat basket and advanced civilization. Turkey and Iran could benefit from stable “national” entities but Egypt experienced foreign leaders as kings or sultans and relied on foreign officers to lead its armies, the latest dynasty was from Albania with Muhammad Ali

The three empires are currently mostly Moslems and they were in general lenient with the minority religious sects. 

The three empires have vast lands, rich in water, and have currently about the same number of population of around 70 millions and increasing at high rates, especially Egypt (90 million).

The Iranian empires relied on the Afghanistanis and the central Asian tribes for their armies.  As the frequent Mogul raids descended on Persia its armies went on the defensive.

The Turkish and Ottoman empires relied on the Caucasus tribes from current Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia States, and also from Albania and Romania.  As Russia started to expand southward and occupied many of these regions then Turkey curtailed most of its vast military campaigns and went on the defensive. 

The Caucasus triangle of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia is still a hot spot for domination among Russia, Turkey, and to a lesser extent Iran, especially with the oil and gas pipelines that pass through them.  My post “Cursed Cities: Kars” would shed detailed historical accounts on that tragic triangle.

 

Modern Status

In around 1920’s two military dictators ruled over Iran and Turkey

Rida “shah” in Iran and “Ataturk” in Turkey were attempting to modernize their infrastructure and civil administrations by emulating the European examples.  Ataturk went as far as changing the Turkish alphabet to Latin and abolishing the Caliphate in Islam. 

Both dictators confronted the religious clerics for establishing secular States with unequal long term successes.  Iran has reverted to religious oligarchy after Khomeini came to power.

While Iran was historically more clement with its minorities it appears that Turkey is practically taking steps to outpacing Iran in that advantage. For example, Turkey is translating the Koran into the ethnic languages such as Kurdish. 

Women in Turkey are prominent in businesses such as Goler Sabanji; 9% of women are represented in the Parliament.  In Iran, Shireen Abadi is Nobel laureate for defending women’s rights; Iranian women represent only 3% in the Parliament though they represent 65% in universities.

In the 70’s Iran was flush with oil revenue while Turkey was struggling to establish an industrial infrastructure. It appears that in the long term oil is definitely a curse for emerging nations because wealth is not invested on the human potentials and stable modern political structure.

In 2008, foreign investment in Turkey was 14 billions dollars and increasing while it amounted to just one billion in Iran.  Turkey has expanded its representation in Africa by opening 12 new Embassies and 20 new consulates.

Nisreen Ozaimy is from Iran by origin and fled to Turkey; when her family lived in Turkey it was impressed by the confidence that the Turks valued their various ethnic nationalities and they implicit feeling that Turkey is in fact a bridge between East and West.  The Turks managed to blend harmoniously the secular and religious inclinations.

The current crisis in the middle-east is changing the landscape: Turkey has alienated most of the Arab world by getting involved and engaged in “Arab” spring upheavals, siding with the Moslem Brotherhood movements, while Iran is heading the resistance front against extremist islam.

Cursed Cities: Kars

 

There are geographical locations and regions that are cursed historically, located on the cross roads of invading powers. 

This essay is not about cities that experienced frequent disasters by natural calamities. For example, we have cities that had vanished because built near active volcanoes such as Pompeii in Italy, others because of being located on seismic faults such as Beirut and lately the Abruzzi region in Italy, and others succumbing to tidal waves and hurricanes such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, the USA Gulf regions, and Rangoon where people perish by the hundred of thousands every year and keep rebuilding in the same devastated areas… 

This article is about cities located on major trade routes and suffered recurring genocides because of human greed for domination and power.  I will focus on the city of Kars in Turkey on the eastern side of the Anatolia Plateau (Anadol). 

Kars is built by the river Kars and a must cross location on the route from Georgia, Tabriz (Iran), the Caucasus and Tiflis. I urge my readers to recollect other cursed cities through history.

Eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus form one homogeneous geographic area in economy, culture, and social communication and trades. The Armenians on both sides preferred to pay allegiance to Christian Russia and wished that Russia would grant them administrative autonomy in the Caucasus. The Moslems on both sides paid allegiance to the Moslem Ottoman Empire. The triangle of the current States of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan were the scenes of major battle fields and invasions through history and is still a hot area till now.

The Nobel Literature Prize winner Orhan Pamuk published “Snow” that described the calamities suffered by the inhabitants of the Kars region.  The Armenian people lived in that region for a thousand years and then many waves of immigrants and refugees from persecutions flocked to it.  The Kars region hosted people from the Empires of Persia, Byzantium and then Moguls, Georgians, Kurds, and Cherkessk.

In the 17th century, the Kars region was predominantly of Moslems and Armenians were second in numbers.

The Russian Empire vied for this region since the 18th century.

In 1827, Russia entered Kars and chased out over 27,000 Moslems and transferred 45,000 Armenians to this city from Iran and the Anatolian Plateau. The city of Yerevan (Capital of the current State of Armenia) that was mostly of Iranians was transformed demographically in 1827. 

In every Russian invasion to the Kars region, the Russian troops could rely on the Armenian population for auxiliary regiments, logistics, and intelligence services. As the Russian troops vacated the region in 1829, over 90,000 Armenians fled with the Russians fearing well deserved persecussion.

During the Crimea War, which confronted Russia against the combined alliance of Britain, France, and the Ottoman, the Russians put siege on Kars in 1855 for many months and all the Ottoman army within the city was massacred.  The Paris treaty of 1855 forced the Russians to vacate the Kars region. The Ottoman troops retaliated heavily on the Armenians.

In 1859, the Cherkessk, lead by their leader Shamel, revolted against the Russians and were defeated; many Christian Russian Orthodox were transferred to Kars to replace the Moslem Cherkessk.  The same eviction process befell three quarter of the Moslems of Abkhazia in 1867.  Thus, in less than 30 years, the Russian Empire changed the demographics of the Caucasus from mostly Moslems to mostly Christians.

Over 1, 200,000 Moslems were forced to transfer to other regions; 800,000 of the Moslems settled in the Ottoman Empire. 

In 1877, the Russians amassed troops on the border with Kars.  Sultan Abdel Hamid preempted the invasion by massacring the Armenians on ground that they will inevitably aid the Russians. After 93 days of war, the Russians entered Kars and a pogrom on the Moslems proceeded for many days.

The treaty of San Estephanos relinquished the region to the Russian Empire. The Russians built a new city south of the city of Kares where the Emperor Alexander III met with his concubines and hunted.

In the next 43 years, the Armenians harassed the Moslems of this region and thousand had to flee. In retaliation, Sultan Abdel Hamid formed in 1891 a special regiment of Kurdish cavalry with the purpose of harassing the Armenians of the Kars region and the pogrom around Lake Van raised an outcry in Europe.

During the First World War, the Armenians again aided the Russians and formed semi-regular armies to fight the Ottoman Empire.  Consequently, in 1915, the Ottoman Empire launched the genocide plan against the Armenians and thousands died of famine during the long march out of Turkey. The Armenians who were settled in Constantinople (Istanbul) and Adana shared in the mass persecution. Only the Armenians in the Caucasus, within Russia, were spared.  The British occupied the Kars region in 1919 and gave some authority to the Armenians who gathered arms from the Moslems and gave them to the Armenians and another round of harassment and massacres took place.

The Turkish General Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) re-occupied the Kars region in 1920 after defeating the Armenian army: the Bolsheviks were then allied to the new Turkish Republic. The Russians transferred the Armenians from the region of Patum to Yerevan.

In 1927, all the properties of the Armenians in Kars were confiscated. The Armenians were robbed of a homeland because Turkey ceased Cyprus to Britain in exchange of guaranteeing the Kars region to Turkey.  Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) also negotiated a political deal with France to relinquish the Syrian region of Alexandrite to Turkey, setting the premises for future regional feuds.

Nowadays, there are no Armenians in Kars. The imposing buildings of Tsarist Russia are government Administrative offices; a vast villa of 40 rooms is transformed into hospital, and a Jewish museum. An entire century of struggles, massacres, harassments, genocides, and useless hate to their neighbors in order to gain self-autonomy rewarded the Armenians nothing. 

The Armenians had to wait for the break down of the Soviet Union to enjoy the Armenian State that is totally dependent in its economy on the neighboring States. 

Kosovo, Kashmir, Jerusalem, Gaza, and Palestine are current examples of lost opportunities for stability and peace.


adonis49

adonis49

adonis49

June 2023
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