War in Armenia and Azerbaijan

For the fourth time since the last century, Armenia and Azerbaijan are once again at war with each other over the territory known as Nagorno Kharabakh, or Upper Karabakh Mountains. Considering the war bulletins from both sides, the lives of over 5,000 thousand soldiers have been lost so far. A figure with every probability hyperbolic, especially if we consider only the military, and certainly due to the respective war propaganda apparatuses of both countries. But however we know with certainty that in about ten days of fighting the military and civil victims are already counted in many hundreds.

Let us therefore take a brief look at the history of Nagorno Karabakh. Although almost 90% of the mountainous territory of Karabakh was inhabited by Armenians, the plain saw the prevalence of the Azerbaijani element, so this region was integrated into Soviet Azerbaijan in 1921, while obtaining the status of an autonomous oblast. During the decades of the so-called “communist” and Soviet government in the region, the ethnic Armenian component of the population decreased to about 77%. However, in 1988, the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh declared independence by proclaiming the Republic of Artsakh (the Armenian name for the Karabakh region) and the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan centered on this territorial dispute became the first in a series of events leading to the dissolution of the Eastern bloc. The republic obtained no official recognition from any country, not even Armenia, and remained de facto independent at the end of the war in 1994. In 2005, following “ethnic cleansing”, almost all inhabitants of the Artsakh Republic were Armenians.

There are conflicting accounts of who launched the first attack in the current conflict. Regardless of this, both sides have clearly prepared for another war. Some reports point out how members of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) have intervened on the Armenian side and how soldiers of the “Syrian National Army” headed by the Turkish president Erdogan, are lined up on the Azerbaijani side. Although these reports are rejected by Armenian and Azerbaijani officials, it is not difficult to believe that both sides benefit from the hardened mercenaries in their ranks. According to a report by the Syrian Center for Human Rights (an organization whose statements are not always taken literally), Turkey sent 1,200 Syrian fighters to support Azerbaijan’s armed forces. The same source claims that they would receive between 1,500 and 2,000 dollars per month.

In any case, not only has Armenia lost many villages, but both nationally and internationally it is outdated by Azerbaijan. Like his father Nazar Aliyev, who was his predecessor to the office of president, Ilham Aliyev leads Azerbaijan’s totalitarian democracy with the support of a substantial part of the country’s population also thanks to the state’s considerable income from oil revenues. The latter has enabled Azerbaijan to purchase arms in various countries including Turkey and Israel.

Ovo The Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, on the other hand, is brought to power by a popular rebellion and still faces the challenge of the elections, even though for now he seems to enjoy some popular support as well. Although states and organizations such as the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations have called for peace, Aliyev enjoys strong and open support from Turkey and Pakistan, as well as some military support from Israel. This last aspect is presented as an apparent paradox: the Jewish state in anti-Iranian function is on the side of Turkey dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, the one to which the Palestinian movement Hamas belongs, which has always been considered by chatter as the worst enemy, or rather it would be better to say as the best enemy. The structure of regional alliances means that Azerbaijan can count on decisive air superiority. Turkish warplanes took part in the aerial duels by shooting down two Armenian Sukhoi-25s, while Turkish and Israeli-made drones help to tip the balance of power in favor of Azerbaijan.

Even France, whose leader, Macron, has expressed criticism of Turkish involvement in the war, does not support Armenia as energetically as Turkey and Pakistan support Azerbaijan. For its part, Russia is traditionally an ally of Armenia, but Pashinian is opposed by Putin, who has no reason to appreciate Pashinian as a pro-Western politician. However, Moscow would certainly not allow a country like Azerbaijan, supported by Turkey, to threaten the existence of Armenia, but it could also allow Azerbaijani forces to advance as much as possible in Nagorno Karabakh.

The two truces reached by the parties in conflict with the Russian mediation did not stop the fighting and bombing even against civilian targets causing numerous casualties. In reality it was only a matter of propaganda diversions to waste time and return to hostilities with renewed vigor.

Regardless of who will be victorious, the proletarians of Armenia and Azerbaijan will still lose because they have nothing to gain from this war. Although it looks like a war between the Armenian and Azerbaijani nations, this is actually a war between the capitalist states for the division of the proletarian class and for dividing up and seizing the markets. Therefore, considered small, it is an imperialist war. The correct proletarian policy in facing such a conflict is to invite the working class soldiers on both sides to transform the imperialist war into a revolutionary civil war. Without this appeal, which can only be launched by a true communist party, the proletarians of the region have no hope of claiming their historic victory which has been lost because of the Stalinist counter-revolution.

At one time, the Caucasus was home to a lively workers’ movement and an established Bolshevik tradition that led to the formation of powerful communist parties. Today, our International Communist Party, heir to the tradition of the Communist International to which these parties belonged, does not exist in the Caucasus. Nevertheless, tomorrow our call for proletarian internationalism and revolutionary defeatism will reach the Caucasus and beyond to spread everywhere.