Azerbaijani/Armenian conflict

I've been away for awhile but I did a search and found nothing about the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The former was supported by Russia to my understanding and the latter by Turkey. Turkey was a known U.S. ally. I can only wonder if this is an extension of the cold war and subsequent proxy wars. I've seen footage of war crimes from Azerbaijani forces against Armenians and quite consistently. Anybody can read the Wikipedia entry on the conflict now that its resolved but does anybody have deeper thoughts on this conflict?

Were poor U.S. relations previously a cover to disconnect from U.S. foreign policy in order to enable this proxy war? What's better than directly funding a country like Afghanistan in the 80s? Is it possible the U.S. funded Turkey to support Azerbaijan? The forces involved were brutal and certainly commited war crimes. Potentially on both sides.

In the interest of independent research I won't currently post any links because I think it could taint or bias other people's opinions(and I'm truly uncertain). This is my first post on ATS despite years of lurking and slowly working towards a first post. My hope is perhaps this post will be reminescent of years past, with constructive thought and productive discussion.

a reply to: Morbidlynx Well done on your first OP! I haven’t heard anything in a month maybe two.

Also: I might suggest trying to add a link to anything you did find worthy of note and supporting your OP.

But I’m not quite sure how to pull it off myself...

Alright, so a basic rundown follows. I'm also hoping members that are familiar with the regions language and decent news sources might chime in with known and valid sources.

]Basic rundown

"The U.S. has supported both nations with security assistance, but under Trump has significantly expanded its financial support for Azerbaijan as part of its effort to isolate and contain neighboring Iran.

U.S military aid to Azerbaijan jumped from around $3 million in 2016-17 to some $100 million in 2018-19. Armenia received $4.2 million in U.S. security assistance in the 2018 financial year."



Interestingly financial support seemed to swing heavily in support of the Turkish supported country so far. Not sure of the dates yet but it appears that funding arrived as a run up or at least in support to the coming conflict. Alas it's late and I hope somebody else can contribute by tomorrow.

link with mention of financial support.

a reply to: Morbidlynx
Actually there was a thread that i updated with videos regularly of the conflict. Many of them have already been blacked out though.
"Azerbaijan and Armenia clash over disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region"
The following post is an example of the kind of information we were able to add to the thread.

Originally posted by: worldstarcountry
Some imagez today of armenia positions along the front lines of combat. You can hear the drones in the air. At one point some soldiers seek cover as they claim to hear grad missiles and expect them to impact their positions. Turns out they were fired in another direction.
Another video shows old fashion 20th century human wave storming the front lines. This footage and much more is included in a domestic news update where it also appears they have some footage of the Syrians recruited by Turkey under false pretenses cowering in fear as shells land around them seemingly begging god for mercy?? the bbc did an interview where some of these guys help explains they were misled when offered 2000$ a month for guard positions only to find they were beingg sent to the front lines without any actual combat training. Also, the armenians released flight radar data showing Turkey F16 flight path just before the shootdown of the Armenian Su27. armenia has managed to shoot down some Harop loitering munitions drones after crossing into their airspace. Images of each action are included in each link courtesy of Armenian government.

Unfortunately these actions were not without consequence as the Azerbaijan ministry of defense released a series of videos confirming many successful hits neutralizing dozens of armenian positions and equipment. The war diary project released a collage video of those actions as well as their analysis.

That sure was alot to type up. I guess I will see what is happening in libya too.

a reply to: Morbidlynx
I have a copy of the Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus, from Yale University Press. As an old student of History, I pick up that sort of thing. It only goes up to 2010, which is too early for Trump era events, but it provides background.
From p113; "As early as 1986=1987 Soviet liberalisation brought about increasing rivalry over the status of the Mountain (Nagorny) Karabakh Autonoous Province and other areas of Azerbaijan with Armenian population.One outcome of this rivalry was the emergence of the Krank movement, which advocated incorporating the autonomy into the Armenian S.S.R. ... The Soviet central authorities gradually lost any ability to influence the two sides... Agaainst a backdrop of escalating armed conflict in Karabakh and the declarartion of Azerbaijan's independence (31 August 1991) after the putsch in Moscow, Karabakh declared itself to be a sovereign state."

You will know, but ATS may not, that Armenians are Christian and Azerbaijan is Muslim.

once again our media establishment isn't bothering to inform us.

flag for OP
thanks to all for info.

gotta be miserable, combat in the mountains in February.

what on earth is the UN good for if they can't stop something like this?

Hellmutt has a long running thread where he gives regular updates on the conflict.

It's a must read for anyone who has even the remotest interest in events in the region.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Awesome links and much appreciated information! I'm sorry to say the search function doesn't seem to favor me thus far. So far, it can be confirmed that Turkey and Russia are fighting a proxy war against one another, and Turkey is even recruiting Syrian soldiers to this front. To me it seems foolish for Turkey to engage in this conflict of it's own volition. I suspect if Turkey didn't belong to NATO and the U.N. they might not have the audacity to play this game.

All countries involved are United Nations members, and Turkey as mentioned is a NATO member. I can't find any direct evidence as of yet that the U.S. intentionally gave Azerbaijan the money mentioned above specifically for this conflict but it's seems odd to me that they gave Azerbaijan the money supposedly as aid in 2018-2019 to supposedly "help contain Iran". From a previous amount of about 3 million USD to 100 million USD is a huge jump at a drop of a hat and a whim. Knowing what the tensions and history of the area you'd have to be pretty naive to think the funds would really be used on Iran to any degree of efficacy.

I'll keep perusing details here and there but I think something smells fishy about U.S. involvement and funding. I personally am willing to bet that this isn't just a Russia vs. Turkey situation. Stars and thanks to everybody who's provided additional info and footage especially worldstarcountry for the time they've taken to add more to this subject.

"Erdogan’s backing of Azerbaijan is a useful distraction from his sagging domestic economy, but it turns a long-standing local conflict into a bigger geopolitical competition. Armenia can resist only with the backing of Russia, which has been fueling that side of the arms race — which means it’s just a step or two to direct conflict between Moscow and Ankara."

Mention of Turkey proxy