Azerbaijan holds new large-scale war games after armed incursion into Armenia
Rick Rozoff
On May 16 Azerbaijan kicked off large-scale war games after its troops encroached on Armenian territory almost a week ago. This is the third series of Azerbaijani war games since last August, the first having preceded the Azerbaijani-Turkish attack on Nagorno-Karabakh by only a month and a half.
The current drills, according to the nation’s Defense Ministry, consist of 15,000 troops, as many as 300 tanks and other armored vehicles, up to 400 artillery pieces, multiple rocket launching systems, mortars, anti-tank weapons and fifty military aircraft and drones.
Only two months ago Azerbaijan conducted another series of war games with 10,000 troops, 100 tanks and other armored vehicles, rocket and artillery installations, multiple rocket systems, mortars and thirty military aircraft and drones.
The current ones, then, are the most extensive since Azerbaijan attacked Nagorno-Karabakh last September in what developed into a lopsided 44-day war. Preceding the war Azerbaijan and Turkey – the two nations refer to themselves as “one nation, two states” – held massive war games throughout Azerbaijan, on both sides of Armenia (Nakhchivan and the main body of Azerbaijan), with the participation of an estimated 11,000 Turkish troops. The exercise began on July 29 and ended on August 10. Seven weeks later Nagorno-Karabakh was invaded.
Given the intrusion of Azerbaijani troops this month into Armenia itself, where they remain, there is every reason to fear a new act of aggression by Baku and its Turkish sponsor, NATO’s second most powerful member.
If tone reveals intent, the title of an article on the war games in the Azerbaijani press on May 17 should clarify the nation’s objectives in holding them. Trend had this headline: Azerbaijani army exercises to be message to revanchist forces in Armenia: expert. It wasn’t Armenia which launched a war last autumn to reclaim land ostensibly seized by others thirty years earlier; not that nation which sought to avenge itself by military means. Avenge = revenge = revanche.
The military expert cited, Adalat Verdiyev, left little doubt as to Azerbaijani motives and goals in saying:
“The exercises are one of the important factors for increasing the combat readiness of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan. The exercises are aimed at making use of the combat experience gained in the recent war to achieve a higher level in the implementation of coordinated operations in the conditions of joint activities of missile-artillery, ground forces and special forces. “
As the same time troops in Azerbaijan’s western enclave of Nakhchivan are holding exercises. The AZERTAC news agency said of the drills: “During the exercises, formations and units involved in practical activities have been put on alert and withdrawn to the destination areas according to combat training tasks.”
The ongoing war games occur six days after Azerbaijani troops illegally entered the Syunik province in southern Armenia and have refused to depart. An Armenian Iranian expert, Vardan Voskanyan, recently warned that the current exercises are preparations for war. Stating the obvious, he added:
“Have those who talk about making peace with the enemy asked themselves whether Baku wants that peace? In fact, the enemy is not preparing for peace, but for war, otherwise there would be no need to hold regular military exercises of such intensity.”
Armenian Acting Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan spoke to Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Stanislav Zas on the phone on May 17 for the second time and warned of dire consequences if Azerbaijan’s aggressive moves were not halted.
Armenia’s Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held an emergency meeting of the Security Council on May 16, reporting that tensions were intensifying near part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
It’s also confirmed that Acting Foreign Minister Ara Aivazian will participate in a foreign ministers session of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on May 19. On May 13 Aivazian and the acting defense minister both spoke with the CSTO as well, with the second warning that Azerbaijan’s aggressive actions not only pose a threat to Armenia but also present “a serious threat to regional security and stability.”
As was to be expected, although the CSTO charter, specifically its Article 2*, obligates members to provide assistance to a fellow member under attack, neither Russia nor the other members (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) have expressed any solidarity with Armenia. Just as Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed the Azerbaijani war games in March with “Azerbaijani military exercises do not pose risks to stability and security in the region,” so now Russian officials seem blissfully unconcerned about the fate of their nation’s CSTO partner, with Zakharova’s boss Sergey Lavrov recently saying, “There is no reason to exaggerate emotions over the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.“
And just as last year’s Azerbaijani-Turkish onslaught against Nagorno-Karabakh engendered no real opposition from CSTO members, and no real outcry anywhere in the world, so this time it’s to be feared that Azerbaijani aggression will be tolerated, encouraging yet further attacks not on Nagorno-Karabakh alone but potentially against other disputed territories in former Soviet states.
*The Member States shall consult with each other on all important issues of the international security affecting their interests, and coordinate positions on these issues.
Might one conclude that perhaps the goal of all this Azerbaijani military activity is to intimidate Iran? Consider that certain regional powers would not only prefer to see all of Iran’s nuclear activities ended, but a partitioning of Iran might be an optimal end goal.
In the past few days, Tehran has gone out of its way to declare it firmly supports the inviolability of Armenian’s borders.
Yerevan, Armenia
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, in large part. Armenian is Iran’s closest ally not only in the region but in many ways the world. Iran has as many as 20 million ethnic Azeris in its country and no doubt Turkey is exploiting its “one nation, two states” partners in Baku to undermine Iran with pan-Turkic separatism.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Pan-Turkic Deep State likes to refer to northwest Iran as Southern Azerbaijan, and Armenia is just a stepping stone on the road to the “Great Turkic Empire.” Iran, China, and Russia all know this. That doesn’t mean any of the three wants to give Yerevan too long a leash.
LikeLike
During the “victory” parade in Baku last December, the guest of honor was Erdogan, who read a poem condemning the “seizure of Azeri land” by Iran and Russia. Iran summoned the Azerbaijani ambassador to Tehran and protested. “Southern Azerbaijan” is a target as Crimea, the North Caucasus and Tatarstan in Russian – Erdogan is constantly denouncing alleged mistreatment of Tatars in Crimea; and so is China’s Turkic Xinjiang province. Turkey, through the Turkic Council it controls, sided with Kyrgyzstan in its recent clash with Tajikistan and controls much of northern Afghanistan through its client Dostum. Yet Pasha Pütin accommodates the neo-Ottomans at every turn, from Libya to Syria to Nagorno-Karabakh. A reverse of Tolstoy’s Hadji Murat.
LikeLike
#WhereisPutin
LikeLike
Playing janissary to Erdogan as usual. Recently Turkey has been attacking Russia for persecution of Circassians – 200 years ago. Yet today’s Turkish press reports:
NATO member Turkey has forged close cooperation with Russia over conflicts in Syria, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as in the areas of defense and energy. But Turkey has criticized Crimea’s annexation and supported Ukraine’s territorial integrity and has also sold drones to Kyiv in 2019.
https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/diplomacy/russia-opposes-turkey-ukraine-cooperation-on-crimea
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wonder the exact tally of Turkish people Erdogan has imprisoned to stay in power.
LikeLike
There’s also this:
‘Assad takes from Syrians, gives resources to Iran, Russia’
Syria’s economic trouble is not caused by sanctions but due to the Bashar Assad regime using the country’s resources to attack its own people and giving resources over to its allies, namely Iran and Russia, Abdurrahman Mustafa, head of the Syrian Interim Government, stated.
He also thanked Turkey’s efforts to reach a cease-fire with Russia, “which had been bombing the Syrian people.”
https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/assad-takes-from-syrians-gives-resources-to-iran-russia/news
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s laughable. Like it or not I am fairly certain Assad is staying in power, too bad there are not more like him. I am praying a hardliner gets in Iran and we can kiss the neoliberals like Rouhani good bye.
LikeLike
See also: Over 85% of Russian Army commanders gained combat experience in Syria, says Putin https://tass.com/defense/1293675
But first it was necessary to allow ISIS/al-Qaeda to take over 80% of Syria so Russia could test new weapons and give commanders combat experience.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m getting annoyed with Itar tass. They just tried to blame Hamas for the bomb threat on Ryanair. I do believe Putin did that though to Syria. He came in right before ISIS took over.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Actually ISIL/ISIS/Daesh arrived in Iraq and Syria after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton simultaneously ordered five heads of state – Iraq’s al-Maliki , Syria’s Assad, Yemen’s Saleh, Ivory Coast’s Gbagbo and Libya’s Gaddafi – to step down. In Iraq that left a vacuum that ISIL, coming from Jordan, filled. The al-Maliki government had become close to Russia, making energy and arms deals, and so had to go. The Saleh government in Yemen offered Russia a return to a naval base in the south it had used during the Soviet period. Even the Mubarak government in Egypt was buying Russian combat aircraft and so on. Hence the Arab Spring (Clinton’s Arab Awakening), dear to all self-styled progressives around the world.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Saleh was a traitor and has been eliminated ;). Assad and Gaddafi were the only ones to fight back. Maliki was already a puppet. I am not proficient on Ivory Coast.
LikeLike
I was speaking about events in 2011 and in the context of the five nations I alluded to – Iraq, Ivory Coast, Libya, Syria and Yemen – at that time pursuing or beginning to pursue a multilateral foreign policy. That’s why Clinton got rid of the presidents of four of them and almost the fifth. I was never a fan of, say, Eduard Shevardnadze or Viktor Yanukovich, but U.S.-engineered regime change is regime change whatever one thinks of the government deposed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Understand, I remember well.
LikeLike
FYI: Azerbaijan enjoys significant prestige on the world stage – Putin
https://www.trend.az/azerbaijan/politics/3429960.html
“Azerbaijan has achieved recognized successes in the socio-economic, scientific-technical and other fields. Your country enjoys significant prestige on the world stage, plays an active role in solving many important issues on the international agenda.
“We highly value relations with Azerbaijan, based on good traditions of friendship and mutual respect. I am confident that by joint efforts we will continue to strengthen in every possible way the strategic partnership, fruitful cooperation in all areas – for the benefit of our peoples, in the interests of ensuring regional security and stability,” Putin said.
LikeLike
😲 Azerbaijan has always been a mafia state. Now they have clout. There’s nothing to cheer about.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Iran-Armenia friendship key to regional peace: Yerevan
https://parstoday.com/en/news/iran-i143030-iran_armenia_friendship_key_to_regional_peace_yerevan
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. It shouldn’t be a secret that Armenia is Iran’s closest ally and has been so for thirty years. For people who only read American “alternative” media (which in turn only reference other American, or maybe British, press sources), that might prove to be a shock. Especially as Westerners generally can’t “identify” with anything happening in the world if they can’t put a religious or racial spin on it.
LikeLiked by 1 person