To clarify the “frontlines” for fellow FReepers:
On the one side is Muslim Azerbaijan supported by Muslim Turkey and Jewish Israel. The Zionist organizations in America are key players in lobbying for Turkey and also since decades prevent the recognition of the Armenian genocide.
On the other side is Christian Armenia supported by Christian Russia and Muslim (Shia) Iran.
The article posted above, written by a Jew, is more anti-Armenian lobbying.
The author’s bias is self-evident. Nagirno-Karabakh is not “occupied by Armenia”; it has been populated by ethnic Armenians for decades, and the residents have established a de facto independent republic that has not been recognized by the Republic of Armenia. The question should be whether the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh should be entitled to self-determination, or whether the boundaries that the Soviets created for Azerbaijan should trump all.
For the record, I am a strong supporter of Israel, and have nothing against the Azeri people (who, for the most part, are respectful of other religions, a rarity in the Muslim world). While I have great cultural and religious affinity fir Armenia (the was the first Christian nation-state), I am not going to take their side reflexively on every issue. But I fail to see why a large, self-contained region with an overwhelming Armenian majority should be subjected to Azeri rule merely because of the policies of a genocidal 20th-century Communist regime.
The Azeris and Armenians are hostile to each other because Armenia launched a war to conquer territory, and they still hold that territory.
The Russians support Armenia because the land they took gives them a land route to Iran.
The Iranians support the Armenians because a third of Iranians are actually ethnic Azeris and they do not want Secular Azerbaijan influencing them. (Interestingly, Ayatollah Khomeini was an ethnic Azeri.)
Israel supports Azerbaijan because they are hostile to Iran.
Turkey supports Azerbaijan because they are hostile to Armenia.
Israel and Turkey used to support each other but don't any more.
The US supports Azerbaijan because it has a lot of oil, could be a path for a pipeline from Central Asia to the West, is hostile to Iran, and is friendly towards Israel.
Hitler invaded the Soviet Union mainly because he wanted to have the oil fields in Azerbaijan (just had to throw that in)
HTH