Turkish journalist and political analyst Uzay Bulut believes that it is time for the world to recognize the Artsakh Republic. As reports “Armenpress”, Bulut wrote about this in his article published on Modern diplomacy website, referring to the hostilities unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh.
The Turkish journalist begins the article with a historical overview of the hostilities that began on 27 September, noting that Azerbaijan has started targeting Armenians living in the Artsakh Republic, Stepanakert – the capital of Artsakh.
“During the military campaign, Azerbaijan has targeted not only whole towns, including Stepanakert, but also Armenian cultural and religious heritage. On October 8, Azerbaijan devastated the cultural house and the Holy Savior Cathedral, known locally as Ghazanchetsots, in the town of Shushi. Ghazanchetsots is one of the largest Armenian churches in the world. The church was bombed twice, heavily injuring three journalists who were documenting the damage from the first bombing,” the journalist wrote.
Bulut quated in the article that in the 1990’s war, when Azeris were still in control of Shushi, they used this church as an arms depot, storing the Grad missiles that they rained upon Stepanakert, which is directly below Shushi. Even after the end of the war, it was still full of human waste and damage left behind by the Azeris. It was reconstructed beautifully in a few years and witnessed hundreds of weddings of Armenian young girls and boys.
“”Azerbaijan has been targeting Artsakh with the direct support received from Turkey. “We support Azerbaijan until victory,” Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on October 6. “I tell my Azerbaijani brothers: May your ghazwa be blessed.” “Ghazwa” in Islam means a battle or raid against non-Muslims for the expansion of Muslim territory and/or conversion of non-Muslims to Islam. Erdoğan thus openly claimed that attacks against the Armenian territory constitute jihad. Moreover, it is not only Turkey and Azerbaijan attacking Armenians. Turkey has also deployed at least 1,000 Syrian jihadists to Azerbaijan to fight against Artsakh,” she said.
Uzay Bulut, in her article, spoke in detail about the Artsakh issue, Turkey’s expansionist neo-Ottoman aspirations, the massacres of Armenians in Sumgait and other Azerbaijani cities, and stressed that Armenians were the overwhelming majority of the population in Artsakh.
“An effective way to stop the violence and destruction is for the world to officially recognize the Artsakh Republic, for whose protection the indigenous Armenians have made so much sacrifice throughout history,” Bulut concluded.
Since 27 September, Azerbaijan, with the support of Turkey, has unleashed military operations against Artsakh, using its entire arsenal, targeting even the civilian population in both Artsakh and Armenia. There is confirmed information that mercenaries brought from Syria through Turkey are part of the Azerbaijani army fighting against the Armenian side. Azerbaijan has even ignored the agreement on ceasefire reached by the Foreign Ministers of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan on the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin on 10 October: and minutes after the agreement came into force, fired in the direction of Artsakh, launched attacks, fired rockets at the front line and settlements.
