In its attempts to make the Artsakh separatists look like "victims of genocide", the Armenian lobby does not shy away from any kind of falsification. It has already gone so far as to compare these separatists, the militant swordsmen who have their hands covered in the blood of the peaceful Muslim inhabitants of Karabakh, such as the inhabitants of Khojaly, with the victims of the genocide of Muslims in Bosnia's Srebrenica.

Such is the speculative and provocative article published in The Washington Times, "Erdogan's Rough Game: Turkey Teams Up with Azerbaijan to Punish Armenia. One of the authors of the article is opposition Russian journalist Mikhail Rubin, who has left the Russian Federation.

The choice of the author by the "customers" of the material is not accidental. It is not a secret that "Karabagh clan" and "Artsakh" separatists are connected with the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin. Today the Western Armenian lobby has gone even further in its fantasies and is trying to present the "Artsakh" separatists not only as "victims of genocide by Azerbaijan and Turkey", but also as "victims of Putin's perfidy".

The article was immediately translated and started to be rebroadcast by Armenian nationalist information resources, in particular the @bagramyan26 telegram channel, and the phrase from the article "Stepanakert is becoming a new Srebrenica and people need action, not empty rhetoric:" The Washington Times was put in the first place.

The article begins with falsification of historical facts, flavoured with aggressive Islamophobia:

As President Recep Tayyip Erdogan begins his third decade in power, he has solidified his place as Turkey’s second-most consequential leader after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the republic a century ago.

With the opposition disempowered if not in disarray, Mr. Erdogan now seeks to fulfill his lifelong ambition: the complete and permanent reversal of Ataturk’s legacy of modern reforms.

American and European officials who believe, with the election in the rearview mirror, that they can return to business as usual with Turkey are dangerously mistaken. The issues that concern Mr. Erdogan most are neither interest rates at home nor Swedish NATO accession abroad, but rather laying the groundwork for the renewal of an Islamic state if not formal caliphate.

Just as Russian President Vladimir Putin considers the downfall of the Soviet Union the 20th century’s greatest “geopolitical catastrophe,” Mr. Erdogan believes it was the Ottoman Empire’s collapse.

None of this is idle speculation. Mr. Erdogan has said exactly what he wants.

He has described himself as the “imam of Istanbul” and as “servant of Sharia.” He declared that his goal is “to raise a religious generation.” He has described Turkish forces invading Syria as the “Army of Muhammad.” The reconversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque did not occur in isolation.

Well let's start with the fact that the collapse of the Ottoman Empire was really a disaster not only for the Turks, but also for the majority of the peoples living in it. If we carefully analyse the geography of most of the current bloody conflicts (Bosnia, Kosovo, Lebanon, Palestine, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and even the south of present-day Ukraine - all these lands were once part of the Ottoman Empire. Whether their inhabitants have become "happier" today is a rhetorical question.

By the way, the unification of countries that were part of former empires is an international practice. There is, for example, the Commonwealth of Nations, which unites former British possessions. There is Francophonie, or the international organisation of the Francophones. It is an international organisation of mainly former French colonies and Francophone countries (IOF). It has 54 members, 7 associate members, and 27 observer members. Armenia, which has never been a French colony and where the French language is not very widespread, is also a full member of Fracophonie. Why is it possible for France (to unite countries that were once part of its empire or were under its political and cultural influence) but not for Turkey?

And what do you call Western mercenaries supporting Kurdish terrorists who invaded Syria? Turkish troops temporarily entered Syria, creating security zones near their borders, but only to secure their territory from Kurdish militants based in Kurdish enclaves in civil war-ridden Syria.

"Turning the Hagia Sophia Cathedral into a mosque did not happen in isolation. Erdogan's latest foul play involves Armenia, the oldest Christian country in the world. He seeks to extend the reach of the Turkic world from Turkey's border with Greece and Bulgaria to China, but Armenia, a country little bigger than Maryland, stands in his way. And Erdogan believes the moment has come to resolve this geopolitical inconvenience."

Hagia Sophia has not been a Christian cathedral since the middle of the 15th century (and it ceased to be Orthodox even before the Ottomans took Constantinople, having gone into union with Rome). During all the years of the Ottoman Empire there was a mosque here. Then it was turned into a museum, today Hagia Sophia functions again as both a mosque and a museum.

Turkic countries, yes, are interested in co-operation among themselves on absolute equality, they are not building any "Erdogan's empire". They co-operate with them within the framework of the Middle Corridor, which stretches through the whole Eurasia and non-Turkic states. Armenia can also join this international co-operation if it gives up its aggressive policy and seizure of other people's territories. No one is encroaching on its sovereignty within its internationally recognised borders on the part of Turkic countries.

What follows is a complete historical lie:

"The Turks attempted this more than a century ago, exterminating more than a million Armenians in a genocide that Adolf Hitler cited as the inspiration for the Holocaust."

For the information of the authors of the article - Hitler classed Armenians as "Aryans" and his co-conspirators in Holocaust crimes were Dashnaks Garegin Nzhdeh and Drastamat Kanayan.

"Armenians say it is no coincidence that Turkey's main ally, Azerbaijan, used Turkish-piloted F-16s provided by the US, operating alongside Turkish special forces, to launch a surprise attack in September 2020 on the Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. The attack took place on the 100th anniversary of the Ottoman invasion of newly independent Armenia."

In 1920, there was not an "invasion of the newly independent Armenia by Ottoman troops", but an aggression of this "newly independent Armenia against Turkey". Armenia then hurried to get the territories that the Entente had generously "sliced" to it under the Treaty of Sèvres. And suffered a crushing defeat.

The article wrote that "Today Russia is playing a cynical game. Traditionally, it has guaranteed Armenia's security. But in 2018, Armenia committed what Mr Putin considers an unpardonable sin: it chose democracy. Today Putin has sided with Erdogan and Aliyev to punish Armenia for the transgression."

Putin did not "take sides", but actually had to reckon with international law at least partially in the South Caucasus. Karabakh was and is internationally recognised territory of Azerbaijan and after the 44-day war, the latter had to accept this.

"...Now the situation is reaching a critical point. As the Biden administration seeks to make peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Aliyev is demanding that the 120,000 Christians of Nagorno-Karabakh become sacrificial lambs. Azerbaijan has blocked the Lachin corridor, which allows the free flow of aid and people in and out of the Christian enclave. Russia was a guarantor, and turned its back..."

But there are not 120,000 so-called "Christians" (Karabakh Armenians) left in Karabakh, but at best 25-30,000. Most of them, as born on its territory, Azerbaijan is ready to grant citizenship to (with the exception of illegal settlers from Syria and Lebanon). Azerbaijan is ready to provide free flow of aid and people through its other territories - in particular through Agdam. But for some reason they do not want to mention this in the article.

"...After the Holocaust, the world said: "Never again." Fifty years later, after the massacre of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica, despite supposed international protection, diplomats again vowed: "Never again". Today, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, Stepanakert, is becoming the new Srebrenica and people need action, not empty rhetoric..."

Even before the Srebrenitsa genocide (mass murder of Muslims by Serbian militants took place in summer 1995) there was the genocide in Khojaly in February 1992. And got the Srebrenitsa genocide. Today those who killed Muslims in Khojaly pretend to be "victims of genocide".

"The Biden administration seeks to make peace, but lasting peace is based on values. For democracy to prevail and for the Christians of Nagorno-Karabakh to survive on the land they have lived on for thousands of years, the West needs to do more than mere words."

More than 300 thousand Christians - Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians, Udins, Germans, Azerbaijanis who have converted to Christianity... - live in Azerbaijan today. No one persecutes or infringes them in anything.

Almost 30 thousand Armenians live among them (not counting Karabakh Armenians). If Karabakh Armenians become citizens of Azerbaijan, the Christian community will increase. And Karabakh Armenians will no longer live in a separatist "black hole" being hostages of criminals, they will be able to move freely in Azerbaijan and go beyond its borders, live and work like other citizens of the country.

Alexandre Chkheidze