In my first blog of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict series, dated October 13, 2020, I gave a cursory overview of the situation, based on my personal visits and candid observations of the geographical area over the past thirty years. The conflict that is taking place in that geographical area of the world did not just start in 1988, as the current media coverage would have you to believe.
The conflict has been going on since the message and influence of Christianity began spreading in the first century. Christianity began moving north from Israel into Greece, Macedonia, Turkey; then eastward toward the Caspian Sea. Turkey and the area of Armenia became strongholds for the spreading of the new Christian faith.
This work has been released into the public domain by its author, MarshallBagramyan. This applies worldwide.
As you can see, in looking at the map, the area known as Nagorno-Karabakh is located in the south-eastern area of Armenia. Throughout the centuries, many Christian cathedrals, monasteries, and shrines have been built in Nagorno-Karabakh. Many of those still stand today. The occupants of the area were generally known as “Armenian-Christians.” Over the centuries, however, there were border and territorial disputes between the Armenian-Christians and their Azerbaijan neighbors.
To heighten and intensify the instability of the area, a fellow named Muhammad was born in A.D. 570 in Mecca, South Arabia. As a young man, he was in a cave and experienced an angel named Gabriel, telling him to record what later became known as the Koran. Eventually, Muhammad became convinced that his calling was to take over the entire Arabian Peninsula for his god, Allah. That expansionism morphed into the growth and formality of the Ottoman Empire for Islam.
The angel Gabriel had instructed Muhammad to be ruthless and aggressive in his battles: “And fight in the way of God with those who fight with you. . . And slay them wherever you come upon them, and expel them from where they expelled you. . . Slay them – such is the recompense of unbelievers – Fight them, till there is no more persecution and the religion is God’s. (Koran 3:190-196)
The Ottoman dominance only slowed down with the defeat of the Ottoman armies at the gates of Vienna, Austria, in 1683. Azerbaijan, Iran, and countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, etc.) fell under Islam rule. Absolute intentionality was there to stop any further Christian expansion to the east of Armenia.
As you can tell, it is extremely difficult to pack two thousand years of history into the 1,000+ words of this blog – but let’s give it a try. As you might imagine, there was more happening in the building up of this current conflict than just religious fervor and theological disputes. As an economist, I have been trained that if you really want to know what is happening – “follow the money.”
In 1917, Russia was embroiled in the Bolshevik Revolution. Vladimir Lenin was determined to replace the Czars with a government that would redistribute all the wealth equally to all the people; where there would be centralized production and centralized distribution – out of the excess of all to the needs of each.
But by 1922, Joseph Stalin and his Communist movement had quickly and effectively stolen the Bolshevik Revolution away from the economic philosophers. Socialism necessitates and demands an “enforcer.” Stalin was an enforcer. Trotsky, Lenin, Marx, Engels, etc., were on the outside looking in.
Joseph Stalin wasted no time in establishing the Russian Federation and the military might of the Soviet Union. The oil fields of Baku, Azerbaijan, were absolutely necessary for his military control and success. (Recall: that it was Adolph Hitler’s general Rommel, who was headed for the Caspian Sea and the capturing of the oil fields of Baku, Azerbaijan, at the closing of World War II.)
Joseph Stalin was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. I have visited his birthplace and even the schools he attended and the statue that still stands in front of the government buildings in Tbilisi. Another look at the map above will show you just how close the country of Georgia is to the oil fields of Azerbaijan. In trying to solidify his Soviet position, not only with the Islamic held countries of Azerbaijan and Iran, but also, those Islamic countries of the “Stans” just across the waters of the Caspian Sea, it becomes quite clear just why he arbitrarily declared that the little section of Armenia called Nagorno-Karabakh would be given over lock-stock-and-barrel to the Islamic Azerbaijanis. The gift was effective. The entire area became part of the Soviet Union.
Skip ahead now, to the collapse of the Soviet Union, December 26, 1991. Russia was desperate to get a pipeline installed from the oil fields of Baku, Azerbaijan, where the oil would be transported westward to the Black Sea. No longer would the oil need to be moved by ship to the Black Sea or the Mediterranean for processing and distribution. Russia did not want to run the pipeline through their steep and rugged mountains known as the Caucasus Range. They wanted, instead, to run it a little further south through Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia.
Instead of having to negotiate with the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, it was determined to simply and quietly eliminate all the people who blocked the newly-chosen route. That is when the people of Nagorno-Karabakh realized that they all were going to end up as victims of genocide. That is when Baroness Carolyn Cox and others form Great Britain started coming to the rescue. That was when Project C.U.R.E. became involved.
International attention was focused on the genocide. Things got messy, but President Putin still needed the alliance and support of Armenia in order to accomplish his oil pipeline project through the area.
In order to bring a solution to the tragedy that was taking place, President Vladimir Putin, suddenly decided to give back the Nagorno-Karabakh area to the Armenian Christians. He did not rescind Joseph Stalin’s act of giving the territory to Azerbaijan, but rather, gave the Armenian Christians the right to set up an Autonomous state of their own in Nagorno-Karabakh, and sent the Azerbaijanis back to Azerbaijan. The Armenian-Christians rejoiced that they once again had their beloved Nagorno-Karabakh back. They settled back into the country and President Putin got his precious pipeline.
Between 1988 and 2020, however, there were numerous disputes and military clashes between the sides. On September 27, 2020, there was a new, large-scale war that erupted between Armenian soldiers and citizens, and the Azerbaijani forces. It is estimated that there may have been several thousand casualties involved in the short war.
During that period of time, international politics and economics had changed. No longer was Putin in the secure position of strength and control he had once enjoyed. Recent political relationships and involvements between Turkey, Russia, Iran, Pakistan and even Israel had changed. Russia was needing to quickly work out some kind of arbitration that would normalize the intensity of the conflict, and also work to beef-up the security of Russia’s shaky oil field situation. He could not afford to get involved in an all-out military operation with anybody.
Putin wanted to avoid any outside aid coming in from the West to complicate his situation. He gambled that Boris Johnson, in Great Britain, who was staving off the worst economic recession in three hundred years, would not come to Armenia’s aid. He also gambled that America was too fragmented, and obsessed with their own internal problems at the time, to send troops into an unknown place like Nagorno-Karabakh. He was right. He moved quickly.
Vladimir Putin worked with Armenia’s Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan. On November 10, 2020, they agreed to a cease-fire. Putin was cancelling his twenty-year-old deal with Armenia and all the people would have to evacuate and return to Armenia. Russia would send military armament and personnel to Nagorno-Karabakh to escort the people out.
The Azerbaijanis were exuberant. Now, the Muslims could return to their long-lost lands. The Armenian-Christians were devastated and felt tragically betrayed by their own government and Nikol Pashinyan. . . “We thought we were winning. . . Where do we go now?” As they retreated, they took with them the few things they could personally carry over the long treacherous mountain road back to “nowhere” in the crowded confines of Armenia. Most everything they could not carry, they torched and left to burn. They were left to start over – once again.
Next Week: Project C.U.R.E. to the Rescue