Peloni: This is an important 4-part Thread. Armenia is an ally of Iran, a close ally which is getting closer. This move seems curiously timed to be coordinated with their recent move closer to the West, which is also proceeding with their own Iranian pivot. The double reinforcement of these connections with the menace from Iran continue to demonstrate a certain disregard for the safety and security of the Western world in general, but most specifically for Israel which stands at the demarcation line between the presumed civilized West and the known barbarity of Iran.
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Scoop: Iran and Armenia have signed a major arms deal worth $500 million, a source familiar with the situation told @IranIntl_En, in a move that could anger Azerbaijan as Tehran supplies Yerevan its infamous suicide drones, @NegarMojtahedi reports.https://t.co/RrlYopkprw pic.twitter.com/m6thUQ610p
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) July 24, 2024
While this is obviously not a desireable development, it is almost inevitable given Armenia’s need to balance Turkey and Israel’s support for Azerbaijan and the continuing Azeri’ threat to Armenia. The Armenians need a “protector,” and Iran, which is at adds with Turkey and at war with Israel, and is close to Armenia’s borders, is the obvious choice. We should remember that Theodore Herzl established friendly relations with the Armenian representatives in London during his visits to England, and Chaim Weizmann continued to cultivate and alliance with the Armenians after World War One when he he was permanently resident in London. With hindsight I think it would have been wise if the Jewish, and later Israeli leadership had continued this policy. Israel’s alliance of convenience with Turkey beginning in 1949 did not work out well, and it permanently alienated the Armenians.
@Sebastien
Thank you for sharing this.
Deep in the Azerbaijani foothills of the southern Caucasus Mountains lives one of Europe’s most interesting communities, the Red Village Mountain Jews. For decades, the residents of the only all-Jewish village outside Israel and the United States — “Krasnaya Sloboda,” as the community is known in Russian (“Qirmizi Qasaba” in Azeri) — have been prosperous and pragmatic, with a foot in at least three worlds.
“Set across the Kudyal River from the provincial capital of Quba, a sleepy Azeri city of 40,000 people some 15 miles south of the Russian-Dagestani border, Red Village is paradoxical in more ways than one. Fluent in various dialects of Persian, Russian and Turkish — and usually a Western European language, too — its residents may be “monoethnic” but they’re extremely multicultural.
“On the one hand, the village is connected to the rest of the world through its own expatriates. While only 500 people live here in the winter, the village balloons to over 3,000 in the summer, when its many sons and daughters return from Moscow, Brooklyn, Tel Aviv and Baku. Indeed, the folks of Red Village are as likely to carry an American passport as they are a Russian or Israeli one. On the other hand, the village remains fairly isolated. It represents the last shtetl in Europe, according to some. Even seven decades of Soviet assimilation policies and 30 years of Azerbaijani nation-building have barely diluted its distinct identity…”
https://newlinesmag.com/essays/how-the-mountain-jews-of-azerbaijan-endure/