AND IN OTHER NEWS: Erdoğan wins in Turkey

Civilnet
Article Published: 29 May, 2023 18:11
Leave a comment

Prior to the first round of the Turkish election on May 14, a lot of talk was dedicated to whether Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or Kemalist party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu would be better for Armenians (the consensus being neither). Erdoğan’s officials played populist by antagonizing or insulting Armenians in various ways during the campaign. Most notably, they closed Turkish airspace to Armenian planes as an expression of outrage over a new monument, in Armenia, dedicated to the memory of those who targeted for assassination those Turkish leaders who planned and carried out the Armenian Genocide. Monuments and streets named for those same murderous figures can be found all over Turkey.

The campaign was full of conspiracy theories surrounding the various political players, and keeping with the vilification of Armenians one potent one claimed that Kılıçdaroğlu, who controversially “came out” as a minority Alevi, is a secret Armenian. This documentary showed a khachkar in his childhood home, which is more likely explained by the fact he was born in the formerly Armenian-populated Dersim region, and many of their churches and cemeteries were demolished and the stones used to build houses.

Erdogan won the first round, though not without claims of massive fraud. An ethnic Azerbaijani far-right candidate garnered 5% of the vote in the first round and found himself in the position of kingmaker. Even though he long opposed the AK Party, he threw his support behind Erdogan, and Azerbaijan became even more relevant when Kılıçdaroğlu announced he supported a train route to Central Asia through Iran, bypassing Turkey. Just after receiving Ogan’s support, Erdogan countered that he’d build a high-speed line through Azerbaijan.

Speaking of trains, “train influencer” (bet you didn’t know that was a thing) The Man in Seat 61 had a popular tweet about updates which make it easier than ever to take the sleeper train between Yerevan and Tbilisi. Add this bucket list item to your Armenia itinerary for this summer!

As mentioned, the other big topic has been the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, where a blockade remains in effect as Azerbaijan continues to insist it will handle the people living there itself without any outside interference. The US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee called for putting sanctions against Azerbaijan on the table, something State Department officials have so far publicly shied away from as an option.

The US has joined Armenia in calling for a de-escalation of the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijan border by mutually moving their forces back, something Azerbaijan has consistently rejected. It even had this call tweeted out by its embassy in the Azerbaijani language. Over the past months, we have seen Armenia and the West’s position aligning while Azerbaijan and Russia do the same.

As the State Department talks about the conflict with increasing frequency, the New York Times published a primer for those many readers.

Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani laundromat is back in the news- the international corruption ring funded by the Aliyev region to buy and curry favor with politicians, think tanks, journalists, and others of influence around the globe. Javad Marandi, an Azerbaijani born in Iran, lost a nearly two year legal dispute with the BBC to keep his name out of the press that some of his overseas interests have been tied to the Laundromat. He is a top donor to Tory politicians, the UK’s ruling party which has been a stalwart supporter of Azerbaijan and refuses to recognize the Armenian Genocide. It was reported that Marandi was part of a group of major donors who had access to top party officials including then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

May was also the late Azerbaijani leader Heydar Aliyev’s 100th birthday, which was marked with slavish devotion by Aliyev regime officials around the world. To mark the milestone, Azerbaijan appears to have taken a page out of ancient Roman history and deified their deceased caesar. One wonders what it is like to be an ambassador for Azerbaijan. Just imagine if part of your job was referring to your boss’s dad as a god.

Back on planet Earth, Armenians marched on both sides of the Lachin blockade to bring attention to the ongoing humanitarian abuse.

Austria announced the opening of a development office in Syunik in partnership with the EU. There have also been numerous ambassadors visiting Syunik in recent weeks. None of this is a coincidence, considering Aliyev’s numerous incursions and statements about taking the “Zangezur Corridor” and Azerbaijan’s “returning to the region” – that is, Armenia..

Armenia also recently hosted a high-level US military officer who is Director for Operations of the Defense Intelligence Agency, which makes determinations about the situations of foreign militaries. There is implication of an increased willingness of western powers to support the Armenian military in some way, especially as Armenia continues to step back from its place in Russia’s CSTO alliance.

Also interesting to see that almost simultaneously, a member of NATO’s leadership was in Yerevan meeting with Armenian government officials.

Belgium recently announced that it would open an embassy in Armenia along with Moldova, indicating increasing European engagement in these two countries.

This is in stark contrast to Azerbaijan, which despite posturing itself as a friend to the west and especially Ukraine has been making it clear that the alliance it signed with Russia just before the invasion was not just a fluke.

After the meetings in DC and Russia didn’t appear to have any results, another one is scheduled for Moldova in a few days. Some have whispered a treaty or agreement of some sort might be signed there, while others contend the parties are still so far apart there is no reason to expect such a major step. Meanwhile the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh remains dire with Azerbaijan intent on only making life harder on them until it can break their will to live. Even the Red Cross which had been operating in an emergency capacity were blocked from doing so on May 10 until finally being permitted to resume on May 26.

Another relevant story which has made waves is the revelation that an unknown actor- believed to be Azerbaijan- used the notorious Pegasus spyware against civil society targets in Armenia during the 2020 war, the first time it has been found to be used in the context of international military conflict. Pegasus originates from Israel, which has been one of Azerbaijan’s main arms suppliers.

In less serious news, another big source of discussion in Armenian social media was its latest contestant in the Eurovision Song Contest, named Brunette, with the song “Future Lover”.

Armenia was the only South Caucasus nation to make it into the finals, and there were big expectations that it would be a top 10 or even top 5 finisher. Despite that, it ended up in 14th place, with 2012’s winner Loreen from Sweden again taking first place.

With high hopes on Brunette for her obvious talent, Eurovision was yet another disappointment for Armenia, but some take hope in the trajectory of last year’s contestant Rosa Linn. Despite coming in 20th, her song exploded in popularity over the months to come and jump-started her career in a way not even a Eurovision win would have provided. Her success was referenced during this year’s final, and Eurovision released this podcast about her experiences.

If you’re Armenian, you are probably very familiar with the famous “Areni shoe”, but that doesn’t mean everyone else is – yet. One of the great things about social media is when it uses its potential reach for good. This viral tweet has been seen over 5.5 million times since it was posted less than a week ago.

Social media can also bring totally mind-blowing stories which we’re pretty certain even as an Armenian you’ve probably never heard, like this link between K-Pop and the First Karabakh War.

In honor of Bob Dylan’s 82nd birthday, social media also revealed another unbelievable story, that Bob Dylan’s ancestors came from a town near Kars along the modern Armenian border. The Armenians of the town were killed or ethnically cleansed in 1918, while Dylan’s ancestors had already left years before for Minnesota by way of Odessa.

One last story which has been going around Armenian social media for its “karma” factor concerns the fate of the “eco-activists” who started the Lachin blockade back in December. Even though Azerbaijan maintained they were totally organic, the fact people were being paid to go there was a not-at-all-well-kept secret. Or at least promised to be paid, as it appears they never got the funds coming to them. We warned Aliyev when this started that he didn’t want to give his citizens any ideas by concocting a “permitted” protest in Lachin, as it might give them ideas about actually standing up to him back in Baku too. His chickens have come home to roost.

And his pigeons too- the best part of this plot twist is that the notorious “pigeon lady” Nailya Ismailova who murdered a defenseless bird while getting a bit too animated during her speech- is one of the protesters who did not get paid. The pigeon tweeted out his pleasure at this development.

We can never get enough of people discovering Armenia’s beauty and enjoy ending our round-ups with such tweets. Here’s a recent one from the Chargée d’Affaires of the Lithuanian Embassy in Yerevan.

Post navigation

Posted in:

leave a reply

Related Articles