Posted on 10/18/2020 2:57:48 AM PDT by Cronos
About 1,000 members of Syrian militant groups deployed by Turkey to support the Azerbaijani advance in the Nagorno-Karabakh region have laid down their arms and refused to participate in hostilities, Armenian media outlets and military-affiliated sources claimed. They insist that Syrian militants were just used as cannon fodder and did not receive their promised money. According to sources loyal to the Syrian opposition, the number of Turkish proxies that died in the war with Armenia has exceeded 110.
Earlier, reports appeared from Syrian sources , claiming that about 400 members of Turkish-backed militant groups deployed in Syria’s northwest had refused to go to Azerbaijan. At least 16 of them were arrested by the so-called Hamza Division for complaining too much and for leaking information to the public.
Meanwhile, the Armenian Defense Ministry released an updated claim on alleged Azerbaijani casualties since the start of the war on September 27. According to this, Azerbaijani forces have lost 5,489 personnel, 541 armoured vehicles, 4 TOS multiple rocket launchers, 19 military planes, 16 helicopters and 176 UAVs. During the last few days, the Armenian military specified, Azerbaijan has lost 3 UAVs, 20 armored vehicles, a plane and has suffered 350 casualties.
Nonetheless, the aforementioned claims did not allow the Armenian military to regain the initiative from the advancing Azerbaijani forces and even the country’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in his recent national address, admitted that the situation on the frontline is complicated and that the Armenians had retreated from positions in the south and north.
“For 18 days of the war, our heroic troops retreated to the south and north,” Pashinyan said. According to him, Azerbaijani troops also changed their tactics “trying to create confusion in the rear with sabotage groups.” Pashinyan also claimed that “A number of countries with the possibility of strategic deterrence did not properly assess the danger, continuing to consider the issue in the context of the Karabakh conflict and believing that territories in exchange for peace is a solution that can save the situation.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that in 2018, Azerbaijan had in the course of negotiations demanded that Armenia give up the seven regions of Nagorno-Karabakh in exchange for peace. According to him, Baku refused to consider the issue of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh as not being part of Azerbaijan.
“In the negotiation process, Azerbaijan has reached the point when it has put a demand for the Armenian people to give up their rights, return five of the seven regions, present specific deadlines for the surrender of the remaining two regions, any status of Nagorno-Karabakh must be determined within Azerbaijan. In addition, the clarification of the status should not have been linked to the process of handing over the territories. The territories were to be surrendered in exchange for peace,” Pashinyan said.
In their turn, the Azerbaijani side remains determined that all of the contested region should be immediately returned to its control and the Armenian Republic of Arstakh there dismantled de-facto employing a military option to achieve this goal.
As of October 15, the Azerbaijani military continued delivering intense artillery and air strikes on Armenian positions across the entire contact line and advancing in the areas of Hadrat and Fuzuli. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced that his forces had captured the villages of Garadaghli, Khatunbulag, Garakollu in the Fuzuli district, and Bulutan, Melikjanli, Kemertuk, Teke and Tagaser in the Khojavend district.
Azerbaijani forces have also been trying to fully isolate the town of Hadrut in order to finally turn into reality their earlier claim that it’s under their full control. They also tried to advance on the town of Fuzuli and even reached it, but the attack was repelled by the Armenians. On the other hand, Baku regularly accuses Armenia of ceasefire violations and claims that all its actions are just a response to Armenian aggression.
The humanitarian ceasefire reached by the sides earlier in October helped to stop offensive operations only on distinct parts of the frontline and the war is raging at almost full force in the northern part of Karabakh.
I hope this is true, but South Front is often a propaganda arm for Assad.
Nothing directed at you, just saying.
I have however heard that the Jihadi’s have been lied to by Turkey to the point they refused to fight.
The correct answer for us is to stay totally uninvolved. That includes logistics and supplies.
I think that SouthFront is a Russian propaganda outlet (which routinely operates in support of the Assad regime).
The situation for the ethnic Armenian Christians in this enclave is Militarily and politically tenuous, because it is completely surrounded by Azerbaijan - landlocked.
It is basically just a matter of economic ability to bear the cost, and political will to bear the casualties, that has restrained Azerbaijan from taking over. If Turkey will subsidize the cost and provide the cannon fodder, things look bleak for the Armenians. Only Russia is on their side.
Militant Islam was dormant, almost dead, until it was resurrected by Jimmy Carter, who stopped the CIA payments keeping the Ayatollah from returning to Iran. Carter also supported deposing our ally, the Shah. Carter gave us militant Islam and he deservedly lost the presidency as a result. Militant Islam is like social Kudzu. Wherever it grows you either fight it or abandon the area. Then, it spreads from that area to other undefended areas until you have a huge problem.
Having said that, I don’t want the US involved directly in any capacity. But the US carries weight so great it doesn’t have to be directly involved. We should encourage Israel to sell weapons only to the side that’s not Islamic. We should encourage the Gulf countries to clamp down on citizens supplying money and support. We should disengage with Turkey and kick them out of NATO. We should use our intelligence services to collect data and disseminate it to those who are fighting militant Islam.
I would not be surprised if, once things calm down with Covid and China, Trump throws Turkey out of NATO.
All of this can be done without the waste of American lives or treasure.
Turkey's role in Azerbaijan's war against Armenia was protested in Qamishlo. “Erdogan’s terror in Artsakh is the continuation of the occupation in Syria,” was the title of the protest outside the Armenian association in the northern Syrian city.
Masses in northern Syria protested against the crimes of the Turkish state in the war against the Republic of Artsakh and the deployment of jihadist mercenaries to Azerbaijan. In addition to Armenians, Syriacs, Kurds and Arabs participated in the protest action in front of the Armenian association.
On signs and banners Erdogan was called a terrorist and an end to the Turkish war of aggression was demanded. On behalf of the Armenians in Qamishlo, Bakin Xazaryan gave a speech in which he condemned the silence of the world community on the aggressive attitude of the Turkish state against Armenia. “Erdogan’s terror in Artsakh is the continuation of the occupation in Syria,” the statement said.
According to official figures, 600 people have died in the Artsakh conflict so far. The real balance, however, is likely to be much more dramatic. The warring parties claim to have killed thousands of the other party. Azerbaijan completely conceals military losses and only gives figures for civilian victims.
Behind the Azerbaijani aggression is above all the Turkish AKP/MHP regime. Turkey has sent jihadist mercenary troops from Syria to the front against Armenia and is present in the region with soldiers and officers. There are repeated reports of air attacks by Turkish jets on Armenian positions. Turkish armed drones are also used in the war. In this way, Turkey is trying to expand its access to the oil and gas deposits in Azerbaijan, to advance the Turanist-racist project of Pan-Turkism and to stabilize itself domestically through aggressive expansionism.
Good photo's at the link.
Over many years, I've found this source to be very reliable. Kurds and Armenians in N. Syria have a long history of cooperating. Both have received very bad treatment (massacre/genocide) from Turkish Government.
They have good reason to be scared. Every Armenian I knew/know has a combination of temper and recklessness!
(*wink* at my Armenian FR frienderanians).
Turkey is the source of this. Russia had brokered a truce and cease fire between Azerbaijan and Aemenia (on the 10th), until Turk led Jihadi’s and Turkish airforce (and drones) broke that Truce. This is not about Azerbaijan and Armenia. It is about oil and face saving for Erdoo at home in Turkey.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/features/whose-job-is-the-timing-in-karabakh-war-47290
One way or another, there is a fact that we must underline: Sultan Tayyip Erdogan is walking on the bloody trail of his own history step by step.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict led by Erdogan-ruled Turkey provides much evidence that he intervenes directly. Moreover, it is also possible to consider the timing of the war as Erdogan’s conscious choice and read it as a kind of symbol.
The starting day of this war is the very day of the 100th year of the previous Turanian expedition. On September 28, 1920, the Eastern Front Army under the command of the Ankara government started the Armenian expedition. On September 27, 2020, under the covert command of Ankara, the Azerbaijani army launched the war against Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia.
One of this year's most hotly domestic and foreign policy issues in Turkey was the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Erdogan chose the 24th of July for this. That Friday, coinciding with the anniversary of the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, was the perfect fit for such a move. Many commentators stated that the day chosen for this was very meaningful, and nobody doubted that Erdogan was doing this on purpose.
Last year, on October 9, 2019, the Turkish army launched an invasion operation against Rojava, the de facto autonomy zone controlled by the PYD, in north-east Syria. Interestingly, this date coincided with the anniversary of a very significant earlier event regarding the Kurdish issue. PKK’s leader Abdullah Ocalan was removed from Syria October 9, 1998 as a result of the ultimatum Turkey had sent. As is known, this date was the beginning day of the international conspiracy that led to Ocalan being handed over to Turkey after a short while.
Furthermore, it is interesting that the war started against Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday morning, September 27, 2020, coincides with the centenary of the offensive launched by the Ottoman Empire on Armenia on September 28, 1920. We can qualify this as the last attempt of Turanian conquest and expansion. Perhaps, while Erdogan wanted this attack to be launched on September 28, the planning officers chose Sunday morning to attack at the most unexpected moment.
It is clear that Erdogan, who, in addition to his multi-directional expansion policy in the Middle East, wants to expand into the Caucasus and threatens Armenia, which is an obstacle to this expansion in the east. The last war Turkey has waged together with Azerbaijan targeted not only Nagorno-Karabakh but also Armenia.
Diplomacy that imposes the surrender of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan is doomed to fail, as in the past. However, on the condition that it recognizes the will of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and accepts its connection with Armenia, the request of Azerbaijan to return other lands can be accepted. Any approach other than solving the issue through mutual concessions has no chance of being implemented. Everyone who is in favor of peace should speak out considering this reality and support the development of an acceptable reconciliation formula for the two sides.
Correct. I don’t see the Azerbaijanis as the bad guys here and neither are the Armenians. It’s very grey
South front is Russian. Mostly propaganda, yes, but always with a grain of truth.
They have good reason to be scared. Every Armenian I knew/know has a combination of temper and recklessness!
Think Cher.
In Sweden, the Armenians are Hell’s Angels crazy.
Throw hand grenades to settle bar fights.
Crazy, crazy.
People know to stay out of their way.
Hired terrorist (Arab, Syrian, Syrian-Turkoman) invaders versus folks fighting a fight related to their existential existence as a people (the Armenians). Who is going to fight harder?
It goes with the region. But the Armenians and the Genocide by the Turks (Ottoman) left an forever lasting impression.
Years ago I worked for a man by the name of Hovainian . A large home builder. He was Armenian. Armenians are Christians. The level of hatred Armenians have for Turks is molten.
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