As Salaamu Alaykum.
Brothers and sisters, we must take notice of the situation surrounding Azerbaijan and Armenia.
It focuses on the conflict between ethnic Armenians and Ethnic Azeris over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a rather simplistic looking group of hilly plains that make up the central highlands between modern Armenia and Modern Azerbaijan.
It's name "karabakh" transliterates to "blackened gardens".
Both ethnic groups have close links to the region stretching back centuries if not millenia.
Armenians refer back to the region's history under the ancient Urartu kingdom, and the Kura-Uraxes peoples, who they consider ethnic Amrenians. And the etymology of the ancient people's languages and the similarities with modern Armenian through grammar and pronounciation.
Azeris refer back to when the region was taken hostage and its Muslim inhabitants slaughtered by the Armenian warlords with Persian help but then later liberated by the oppositional Persian troops under the Panah Ali Khan.
Islam had arrived in the 7th century, and by the time the Safavid Persians first came into contact with the area, they had transformed it into a region strictly under Shia Islam under Shah Ismail.
Throughout the course of both histories, both have committed attacks against each other.
The modern conflict can be traced back to the Soviet intervention in the region, when Vladimir Lenin took a strong hand against the religious populations of the area, preferring to punish the Muslims and Christians for holding on to their beliefs.
Armenians then made up the majority and were thus granted a greater share of the political freedoms and powers over the state as opposed to the minority Azeris.
To further complicate matters, Britain was [arming Armenians against it's old foe, the Ottoman empire](ttps://books.google.com/books?id=4LYqAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA788), funding ethnic Armenian militias to the tune of 3 million British pounds at the time. In today's money, that 160 million pounds give or take.
At the time, the Muslims of the region had no common defense force, however the Imperial Russian armed forces was about to give them one by forming the "Savage" division, compiled from ethnic Muslims and from Muslims drafter in from around the Caucasus. The unit became famous for never having a single deserter, and for it's bravery in the face of odds, having once disarmed an entire bolshevik battalion.
In 1917, Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian officials came together to declare a joint independence forum known as the Sejm, issuing it's freedom from the Bolsheviks.
When the Imperial Russian army collapsed, the Sejm was concerned that once again, there was no defensive force for the religious peoples of the regions, thus established a unified front against Russian Bolshevik forces.
As World War 1 waned, the Russians pulled troops from the frontline and ordered them to disarm, however they were ordered to do so within the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Russians appointed Stepan Shahumyan, an ethnic Armenian as the leader of the Baku Soviet. Baku is the modern capital of Azerbaijan, and it is the base from which the Soviets conducted their anti-religious activities.
The Soviets became increasingly concerned about the status of the unified groups against them, and thus they attempted to consolidate their rule over the region in order to ensure their access to Baku's most prized possession: Oil.
Lenin himself is reported to have said that without the oil from Baku, "Soviet Russia Cannot survive"
Even more so, when they lost control over the Grozny oil fields.
Due to the immortal thirst for oil, other world powers, namely Britain and Germany, who both became deeply involved militarily, the latter had all but abandoned their Sinai and Palestine campaigns and diverted their main forces in those expeditions to the Caucasus, to focus on Baku.
The first major spark in modern times erupted during these tumultuous months.
In the 9th of March 1918, the Muslim Savage division arrived in Baku. Upon entering the old city, the Soviet leadership arrested it's general and imprisoned its officers. Drawing the ire of the local Muslim population.
On the 27th, Soldiers of the Savage Division boarded a ship called the "Evelina" to attend the funeral of one of their commanders.
Most reports state that when they attempted to set sail out of Baku, Soviet troops stormed the vessel and disarmed the soldiers..
Baku erupted into conflict, the Muslims feeling quite rightly that the Soviets had overstepped any authority they claimed to have. The Soviets under Shahumyan were outnumbered and had to resort to forging brief alliances to counter the stirring Muslims. Shahuyman being an ethnic Armenian, chose Armenian militias
Muslims marched to the central capital building, demanding that the savage division, the regional defence force composed of Muslims and for the Muslims, be re-armed. Shahumyan initially agreed to this, but before anything definite could be established, shots had been fired in the Muslim protestors.
Shahumyan would later admit to having initiated this conflict in a deliberate attempt at an ethnic genocide:
Massive destruction rampaged across Baku.
Armenian milita forces massacred Muslims left, right and centre, regardless of age or gender.
Armenian militais burned Mosques, raped and looted Muslim property with abandon.
Per Peter Hopkirk; "Armenians, seeing that at last they had their ancient foes on the run, were now out for vengeance"
An estimated 12,000 perished.
Bolshevik forces used artillery against Muslim majority sectors of the city
The fighting did not stop until the night of April the 2nd, when thousands of Muslims fled the city, arriving to the rural township of Ganja. Keep this in mind, this city will become important later on.
These events became known as the "March days" and are central to the modern Islamic history of the region. It is the first of many Armenian led massacres of Muslims and attempted ethnic cleansings of the region.
The Muslim refugees who had fled to Ganja declared the democratic republic of Azerbaijan, with the support of the Ottomans. Ganja became its capital.
This support would become historic and tie the fates of both the modern republic of Turkey with Azerbaijan.
Ottoman minister Enver Pasha ordered his brother Nur Pasha to form the Caucasus Army of Islam and re-take Baku from the Soviets.
By the Grace of Allah, they marched forth and destroyed the Soviet regime in many important battles. The British saw their oil project visions defeated and their Armenian allies suffering loss after loss dispatched an expeditionary force to counter this. This British force too collapsed and on September 18th, 1918, the Army of Islam of the Caucasus entered Baku.
On October 21st, The Ottoman empire had admitted defeat and British forces had gained administrative control of the region.
The British tried to convince the Armenians to accept Azerbaijani rule, but the Armenians would not budge, convening congress after congress to issue rejections of British solutions.
In 1919, hoping for a better solution in the Paris peace conference, the Armenians accepted a deal in which the final status of the region would be decided at a later date, however, till that date, Azerbaijan would have sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh and would maintain an army there. But the Armenian national council would dictate the movement of the army, often banning it from entering certain areas.
A further congress warned Azerbaijan that if they did not accept Armenian demands, Armenian militias would once again stage an uprising
And they did just that in 1920, when on the Persian New year of Nowruz, Armenian militias, thinking the Azerbaijanis would be distracted in celebrations, attacked Askeran and Khankendi. Their attempted attack on an Azerbaijani army camp failed and the azeris retaliated
In the subsequent conflict, an estimated 25% of the population was lost, most of them Armenian.
In 1921, the Soviets entered Armenia and promised them Karabakh. But to appease Turkey, they granted Azerbaijan full control over the region. Josef Stalin made the area an autonomous oblast, or "administrative region" of Soviet Azerbaijan.
By 1979, just under 25% of the population was ethnic Azeri.
As the Soviet union entered its final years a referendum was held in 1988 to decide the final status of the region. The referendum was boycotted by the Azeris. This referendum was not valid per the Soviet constitution and so the best the Soviets could offer the Azeris and the Armenians and those who inhabited Nagorno-Karabakh was greater autonomy. Which satisfied no one.
Attacks on Azeris had already escalated in the closing hours of the USSR, with several villages going up in flames from attacks by Armenian nationalists
As retaliatory attacks occurred on the Armenians who lived in Baku, only then did the Soviet Red Army intervene, killing 130 estimated Azeris, and installing a puppet president in the region.
Azeris began to suspect that the Russians favoured the Armenians and that the red army did not come to restore peace, but to dismantle Azeri nationalist movements.
These events have shed the light for the ties between the modern state of Russia and the modern Armenian republic.
In 1991, both countries achieved independence and conflict broke out almost instantly. Per Russian sources, generals of the old Soviet republic began arming the Armenians with state of the art technology and vast new weaponry.
These weapons transfers occured before, during and after the war
To bolster it's declining reserves, Armenis press-ganged members of the public into the army. Often, areas of local towns would be sealed off and the local men dragged off to fight Azerbaijanis.
Whilst technically a secular republic, Azerbaijan called upon the Muslim world to assist it. Turkey responded immediately, followed by foot soldiers from Afghanistan and military strategists and weaponry from Pakistan.
But during this war, the defining aspect of the conflict was established. The mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Azeris from the region.
Azeri President Heydar Aliyev attempted to establish peace talks with Amenia on several occasions, often bypassing the Armenian central government to appeal to the Armenian local populace of the region in a move the Armenians rejected.
One of the darkest moments was the massacre of Azerbaijanis from the township of Khojaly.. Almost one million by the end of 1993.
Conservative claims range from 161- 643 being Azeris were slaughtered by Armenian militias.
HRW claims the numbers may reach into the thousands, due to the undocumented nature of the event
As result of attacks and military operations in the active phase of the conflict starting in 1991, almost all Azeris were forced to abandon their homes. There have been recorded cases of violence against Azeri civilians by Armenian militants (in Meşəli), civil casualties as a result of shelling (in Malıbəyli and Aşağı Quşçular) and burning down of entire villages (İmarət Qərvənd).
In 1993, the UN Security Council called for Armenian forces to cease their attacks on and occupation of a number of Azerbaijani regions.
A further UN resolution recognised Nagorno-Karabakh as Azerbaijani territory and called for the removal of Armenian troops from the region.
Ccountless civilians are estimated to have died in an escalation of violence during July 2016 -May 2017, Which began when Armenian forces, illegally stationed in the area, in violation of the prior UN resolution, launched artillery strikes at Azeri positions.. The Armenian forces are known to have targeted civilian areas specifically.
In the past few days, Armenia and Azerbiajan have once again engaged in warfare over this disputed region.
On September 27th, Tartar's Qapanlı, Aghdam's Cıraqlı and Middle Qarvand, Füzuli's Alkhanlı and Shukurbeyli and Jabrayil's Cocuq Mercanlı villages were shelled by Armenian Army with large-caliber weapons and artillery.
Armenians are now, once again, targeting civilians in the city of Ganja
It is up to ourselves to be educated in all the conflicts which involve Muslims and in which Muslims are suffering or oppressed.
[link] [comments]
from Islam https://ift.tt/2Go8ct2
Post A Comment:
0 comments so far,add yours