2y ago

Blinken warned lawmakers Azerbaijan may invade Armenia in coming weeks

www.politico.com

Highlights:

Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned a small group of lawmakers last week that his department is tracking the possibility that Azerbaijan could soon invade Armenia, according to two people familiar with the conversation.

Azerbaijiani President Ilham Aliyev has previously called on Armenia to open a “corridor” along its southern border, linking mainland Azerbaijan to an exclave that borders Turkey and Iran. Aliyev has threatened to solve the issue “by force.”

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2y ago

Blinken warned lawmakers Azerbaijan may invade Armenia in coming weeks

www.politico.com /news/2023/10/13/blinken-warned-lawmakers-azerbaijan-may-invade-armenia-in-coming-weeks-00121500

30 comments

Hey Earth, can you like, chill the fuck out for a while please?
- Just fyi, everyone, I'm thinking about annexing FartsWithAnAccent's house in coming weeks.
  
  God damn it, that's it! I'm joining NATO.
- Earth: I'll be cool if you stop putting so much CO2, methane and other pollutants in the atmosphere.
Would you like Armenian genocide to go with your Palestinian genocide? We are having a 2-for-1 sale on classic Muslim genocides this month.
- Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but Armenians aren't muslims, they're majority Christian.
  
  Oh, I didn't even know that. I assumed that they were Muslims from the region. Interesting that we haven't heard anything from the "Christians are being persecuted" crowd about them.
- Just going to pass over the Ukrainian genocide?
  Sure does seem like everyone's trying to go to war at once.
  
  classic Muslim genocides
- Sorry, I haven't finished following the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar yet. Can I pay in installments?
  
  I'm late on my Uighur payments
Nobody really cares about Armenia, so this issue has flown under the radar in the past month:
On 19–20 September 2023 Azerbaijan initiated a military offensive in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region which ended with the surrender of the self-declared Republic of Artsakh and the disbandment of its armed forces. Prior to this offensive, Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but governed and populated by ethnic Armenians, had a population of nearly 120,000. Faced with threats of genocide and ethnic cleansing by Azerbaijan, over 100,400 ethnic Armenians, nearly the entire current population of Nagorno-Karabakh,[6] had fled by the end of September 2023.[2][3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_of_Nagorno-Karabakh_Armenians
- It's because Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. Always has been.
  Now, if Azerbaijan invades actual Armenia proper, then that's a different story.
  
  if Azerbaijan invades actual Armenia proper, then that's a different story.
  The possibility of that happening is literally the linked article.
  Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. Always has been.
  Internationally recognized, fine. The population was about 120,000. 100,000 fled to Armenia after the attack. I'm sure they care about international lines on a map.
  Always has been is categorically false. Armenia has been a country for about a thousand years before the ones who drew the lines on your map.
We're really slow-rolling WWIII
- Nah. After WW2, it's all proxy battles now! Gotta let those developing nations duke it out for scraps while the war machine sell them weapons!
  
  All of the profit, none of the property destruction at home.
Oh boy, WW3 is really warming up huh? 😞
Azerbaijan and Turkey are monitoring the west's reaction to what Israel is doing before going ahead. Turkey has been such a good Western alley lately really provided help at pivotal moments. What could of possibly made Turkey fall in line as heavily as it has.
- What could of possibly made Turkey fall in line as heavily as it has.
  F16s.
  https://www.reuters.com/world/turkey-will-back-swedens-nato-bid-if-us-keeps-promise-f-16-sale-erdogan-2023-09-26/
  Which is yet another reason why the West will hang Armenia out to dry.
  Turkey already endorsed a corridor between the two countries through the south of Armenia, immediately after the attack on Artsakh, literally 4 days, while 100,000 Armenians were fleeing.
  https://www.reuters.com/world/azerbaijani-turkish-leaders-hold-talks-eye-forging-land-corridor-via-armenia-2023-09-25/
  Why would Armenia open this corridor voluntarily? Azerbaijan already pinky swore Artsakh wouldn't be attacked. Erdogan knows how this will be solved, and it won't be pen and paper.
Wars and rumors of wars.
I feel like that even if you don't believe in the apocalypse, we're living in the end times.
- "Wars and rumors of wars" is like "a day that ends in Y." It has never not been applicable.
Understand that Armenia is a Russian puppet state.
- russian peacekeepers are letting it happen - they've been cooperating with Azerbaijan - so really the US and Russia are on the same side here (the side of "let the genocides rip"). Its probably worth noting Azerbaijan has oil and Armenia doesn't.
  
  They also have many of the pipelines that send oil/gas from that region to Europe. Hence the hand wringing and platitudes from the West rather than actual help. Aliyev knows this.
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SouthernGasCorridor
  https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/why-volatile-south-caucasus-is-important-oil-gas-supplies-2023-09-22/
  And when Armenia had the gall to even hint at trying to break from under Russia's thumb to the West, Aliyev got the ok from Russia to teach them a lesson.
  https://www.reuters.com/world/armenia-us-military-exercise-kicks-off-near-yerevan-us-spokesperson-2023-09-11/
  Azerbaijian took Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh 8 days later, in spite of a prior Russian security agreement to prevent exactly that.

30 comments