The New Kings of Jihadist Terrorism: Azerbaijan and Turkey

The vicious war against the Armenian Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and Armenia by Azerbaijan, Turkey, and thousands of their jihadist terrorists has passed the one month mark.

The jihadis’ presence, which includes ISIS, is consistent with the debauched political cultures and national ambitions of Azerbaijan and Turkey.  It also tells us that the U.S./NATO/EU stance towards those countries continues to be dangerously passive.

Just days ago in Washington DC, Azeri demonstrators chanted “jihad, jihad, jihad” and flashed the hand signal of Turkey’s homicidal, neo-fascist Grey Wolves.

It’s not surprising. Azerbaijan and Turkey are longtime Turkic allies of jihadist terrorists.

Turkic Jihadist Terror

• In the early 1990s, Azerbaijan deployed thousands of jihadis and terrorists, including Afghan Mujahedin, Chechens, and Grey Wolves against Artsakh’s Armenians who had voted for self-determination. Turkish army officers also took part.
• Al-Qaeda cells in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku helped to plan the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. A dozen Americans and 212 others were killed.
• The U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center reports that ISIS ranks have included over 900 Azerbaijanis and 7,400 Turks.
• Ahmet S. Yayla, Turkey’s chief of counterterrorism from 2010-13, wrote: “Turkey was a central hub for the travel of over 50,000 ISIS foreign fighters, and the main source of ISIS logistical materials … making Turkey and ISIS practically allies.”
• Secret wiretaps revealed that Turkey has supplied ISIS in Syria via Ilhami Bali, codenamed Abu Bakr, a 36-year-old Saudi-born Turk.
• Columbia University has issued two valuable studies: ISIS-Turkey Links and Turkey-ISIS Oil

Today’s Turkic Jihadist Terror

• Since September, Azerbaijan and Turkey have brought in ISIS commander Sayf Balud, the Hamza and Sultan Murad Brigades, Syrian terrorists, and thousands of other jihadis to battle Armenians. Many were present even before September.
• Some of the jihadis had committed atrocities against Christian Armenians and Assyrians, Kurds, Yazidis, and others in Syria and elsewhere.
• Azerbaijan is using some jihadis as human shields for its soldiers. Others are thrust into battle while Azeris point guns at their backs to prevent retreat.
• Armenian forces have dealt them severe blows. One jihadi warned, “Jihadi, don’t come, we have been deceived, everything is a lie.  This is a meat grinder.”

Artsakh’s Ordeals

In the early 1920s, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin transferred the ancient Armenian territory of Artsakh (96% Armenian) to Azerbaijan to indulge Turkey. No country/people named Azerbaijan/Azeri had ever existed before 1918.

Artsakh’s Armenians subsequently suffered brutal repression, deportations, and mass murders under Soviet Azerbaijan’s scimitar. By 1988, Armenians had been reduced to 76% of the population. All this was due to raw, ethno-racial, Azeri fanaticism.

Artsakh’s Armenians voted in 1988 and 1991 for self-determination and independence from Azerbaijan according to Soviet law and then international law. Armenians won the ensuing war.

Note that Azerbaijan claims not only Artsakh but Armenia too.

Artsakh and Armenia are reformist democracies. Dictatorial Azerbaijan is light-years away from that. Turkey is a similar political and human rights disaster.

If you lived in Artsakh, would you ever agree to Azeri rule?  Of course not.

America’s Global War for Terror

The Global War on Terror (GWOT) has been American foreign policy’s pièce de résistance since 2001. Supposedly, therefore, regimes that use jihadis/terrorists against civilized people should become pariahs.

Yet American administrations and Congress have acted largely deaf, dumb, and blind regarding Turkey and Azerbaijan’s support for jihadis/terrorists.

In 2016, I presented evidence to Richard M. Mills, U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, that Turkey supported ISIS. He foolishly lied and denied it all.

The U.S. (and Europe) fawn over Azerbaijan’s gas and oil deposits and westbound pipelines despite its sickening record on jihadis and human rights.

Our government lies about our GWOT, but we remain silent. What kind of people are we?

Rename the GWOT to GWFT: the Global War for Terror.

Azerbaijan has signed and is violating the “UN Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries.” Neither the UN, State Department, nor Congress has spoken up.

America provides “counterterrorism” assistance to Azerbaijan.  Thus, Americans pay it to fight terrorists while Azerbaijan turns around and hires terrorists.  This is sick stuff in which we as Americans are complicit.

Now consider the jihad against Armenian/Armenia/Artsakh by Israel and the Jewish American lobby.

The Kosher Jihad

Countless Jewish academicians, writers, human rights advocates, and elected officials have supported Armenian Genocide recognition and helped Armenians in other ways.  Not so for top Jewish organizations such as the ADL, AIPAC, AJC, and JINSA.

For decades, they have diminished/denied the Armenian Genocide and colluded with Turkey and Israel to defeat Armenian Genocide resolutions in Congress. The ADL and AJC have relented a bit, though insincerely and only under pressure.

For years, Israel and most of these organizations, led by AJC, have supported Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev has given his country’s highest award to AJC Executive Director David Harris.

Israel demands worldwide recognition of and legislation on the Holocaust but refuses to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Israel is probably Azerbaijan’s biggest weapons supplier.  Israeli cluster bombs — usually banned under international law — are killing Artsakh’s civilians.

As Azerbaijan runs short of weapons and ammo, Israel is now sending more.

There are 24 righteous Armenians in Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial but no Azeris. Oh well, bomb the Armenian goyem anyway using Israeli weapons.

Meanwhile, scores of Jewish and Israeli writers defame Armenia and Armenian-Americans.

Israel always complains it’s the victim of terrorists and jihadis. Now it’s on the same side as the jihadis and terrorists in Azerbaijan.

Countless Americans, including Christians, sell their souls to the Jewish lobby for political expediency, money, and career advancement and dare not whisper a word of dissent. You know who you are.

Meanwhile, Armenian Genocide 2.0 looms.

Artsakh’s ombudsman correctly notes that “various representatives of the international community are either blind or incapable.”

How long will this remain so?

David Boyajian is a Massachusetts based freelance writer.

The views of the author do not necessarily reflect those of Greek City Times.