Armenia has reason to be fearful

Posted Aug 9, 2017 at 4:08 PM Updated Aug 9, 2017 at 4:08 PM

Mr. Demoorjian’s letter of 08-04 was spot on and well-deserving of the space allocated. If he had been permitted, he could have referenced a wonderful autobiography by Orhan Pamuk, “Istanbul, where the author included photographs of entire neighborhoods in Istanbul formerly occupied by Armenian, Greek, and Ladino speakers that were totally vacant – Pamuk observed that the music of these languages was no longer heard in the streets of Istanbul. Armenians were ousted in forced marches and massive killings carried out by the Turkish army 100 years ago, Greek and Ladino speakers gradually were encouraged to leave Turkey as the country became increasingly xenophobic during the past 60 years and there has been an open hunting season against the Kurds for that entire period.

The letter of 08-06 was poorly researched. First, Azerbaijan did not purchase the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system to strengthen its ties with Russia and Iran – the Armenians have long since had all their infrastructure owned and operated by Russian oligarchs except for a natural gas pipeline built by the Mullahs some seven to eight years ago. Twenty-three years ago, Armenia, with Russian backing and weapons, invaded the Nagorno Karebakh region of Azerbaijan which Armenia holds to this day. Why did the Russians encourage hostilities in the first place and why did the Mullahs build the pipeline? Both Russia and the Mullahs lust after ridiculously cheap oil at Baku in Azerbaijan.

In April of this year, a 23-year-old cease fire was broken and ensuing hostilities cost the lives of more than 200 people. One should feel sympathy for Armenia because neither Russia, nor Iran are in any position to help them maintain control of the area because of increased sanctions leveled at both countries by the recent vote of the US Congress. Second, while there is a prohibition against sales of the Iron Dome system with US components to another country without consent of the US, there is no prohibition if Iron Dome system components are all Israeli. Third, Azerbaijan treats all its citizens as citizens regardless of their religious/ethnic background as Armenia does.

In short, Armenia has reason to be fearful because neither Russia nor Iran can spare resources or manpower to shore up Armenia because of increased sanctions and both are thin of military manpower now because of commitments elsewhere.

Arnold Pinsley

Natick