Western Journalists Don’t Understand Artsakh
Azerbaijani soldiers occupy the city of Shushi which they captured in the 2020 invasion of Artsakh.
Amidst Azerbaijan’s ongoing military aggression against the Republic of Artsakh, journalists are contributing to the confusion of western audiences by not understanding the subject matter.
For example, part of a Fox News headline reads, “Christian Enclave Ends Decadeslong Conflict in Surrender…”
This headline is misleading because, at the time of publication, Artsakh has not officially surrendered. The country has merely agreed to lay down its weapons in return for Azerbaijan to halt it’s military aggression.
This aspect ties into another Azerbaijani tactic, that journalists perpetuate with careless quotations, which is Azerbaijan’s claim that “Armenia” has soldiers and weapons in Artsakh.
This assertion is grossly inaccurate and serves to isolate the people of Artsakh further.
There are three distinct entities at play here . You have the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Artsakh - which has historically been occupied by Armenians, but not under Armenia’s governance.
When Western journalists spread the myth of Armenia having troops and weapons in Artsakh, you are repeating the lie that there are only two countries involved here, instead of three.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the people of Artsakh had every right to petition for independence, or be a part of the Republic of Armenia, as they saw fit by right to self-determination. Unfortunately, politics of the time denied Artsakh its right to govern itself and, even though Artsakh was never technically part of Azerbaijan, the world recognized it as such.
When Azerbaijan pressed its claim to Artsakh in the early 90s, Azerbaijanis massacred Armenians who had remained in the Azeri capital, Baku, and many more fled to Artsakh and Armenia. By the end of the first war, Artsakh, with the support of Armenia, won.
This is at odds with what Fox News told its audience:
Armenia retained control of the region since 1994 following the fall of the Soviet Union, but Azerbaijan regained control in 2020 after six weeks of brutal fighting between the two countries.
Armenia did not control the region, Artsakh was able to successfully self-govern on their ancestral homeland, until 2020 when the world allowed Azerbaijan to successfully invade Artsakh, with the support of NATO-ally, Turkey, as well as jihadist mercenaries from Syria and Libya.
The Fox News report then went on to parrot statements from Azerbaijan which claimed they were only striking military targets. A gross lie which a quick search on social media reveals, wherein civilian houses are seen demolished, and children are hospitalized from the shelling.
The report concludes with a quotation from the Prime Minister of Armenia, which doesn’t make sense if you don’t already know the context. PM Nikol Pashinyan mentions that Azerbaijan is attempting to include Armenia in the topic of Artsakh’s ceasefire. He does this to highlight that Armenia is a separate entity which is not involved. Azerbaijan is attempting to include Armenia in the discussion, because Azerbaijan wants to invade Armenia next.
These details would not be clear to the average reader, however, if you hadn’t followed the story for months, if not years.
Another detail western media gets wrong is highlighted by the Reuters report, where they refer to Artsakh as, “Armenian Separatists.”
This phrasing evokes an image that Azerbaijan is a nation with clearly established borders (which it doesn’t), and a small province within it performed a revolutionary action of breaking away.
Azerbaijan didn’t exist until after the fallout of World War 1. Russia had control of the region around Baku, which it had taken from Iran. After Russia was devastated by the war and subsequent Bolshevik Revolution, the decaying Ottoman Empire took advantage of the situation to massacre Armenians and Russians living in Baku so that Azerbaijanis could take control.
The short-lived Republic of Azerbaijan was quickly subsumed into the Soviet Union. The point remains, that Azerbaijan only exists within the framework that the international community allows it, because it was never its own country in its own right.
Armenians have occupied the region for thousands of years before the birth of Christ, and have endured despite repeated subjugation to various empires.
If the international community does not respect Artsakh’s right to self-determination on their ancestral homeland, wars will continue as Turkey and its allies seek to resurrect a new Turkic-Empire.
