Last week, the South Caucasus captured the world’s attention when the Republic of Azerbaijan launched a military offensive to completely retake the separatist enclave of Karabakh. The conflict over Karabakh, itself the cause of three decades of ethnic conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, has had large regional implications. Unlikely pacts have come out to support each side, on the Armenian side: France, Russia, Iran, India and Greece, on the Azerbaijani side Israel, Turkey and Pakistan. In particular, the relationship between Azerbaijan and Israel has become increasingly close, much to the ire of Iran. Join us for an in-depth discussion with Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security Turkey Expert Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, who will discuss the importance of this relationship and what will change in the wake of Azerbaijan reestablishing control over Karabakh.
About the Speaker: Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak is the Turkey expert at Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) and the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies (MDC) at Tel Aviv University. He received his doctorate from Tel-Aviv University’s School of History and is a lecturer at the same institution and at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Dr. Cohen Yanarocak is the editor of Turkeyscope: Insights on Turkish Affairs. In May 2015, he was awarded the Dan David Prize Scholarship in the category of “Past: Retrieving the past, historians and their sources.” He is the author of the The Evolution of the Turkish School Textbooks from Atatürk to Erdo?an from Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield.
Ted, you are one of the few people I know, with the slightest interest in these countries. Most people can’t even pronounce their names, much less find them on the map.
Dr. Yanarocak explained the situation very well. Each of the relationships he described fits perfectly into a geostrategic picture. If WWIII were to suddenly morph into a transcontinental kinetic war, there would be two sides:
Side 1 (similar to “Oceania: of “1984):
NATO (including Turkey), Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan Central Government, Libya-Tripoli, Georgia
Side 2 (similar to “Eurasia” of same):
Russia, Iran, Armenia, Red China, N. Korea, Afghanistan, UAE, Hamas, Hizbullah, Sudan opposition, Libya-Benghazi, Mali, Niger, Burkina, Syria, Lebanon
I am personally of the opinion, that Turkey will at one point switch sides and side with Iran, or visa versa. If and when this were to happen, there would be a fruit-basket upset in the Caucasus.
“The only synagogue in the Armenian capital Yerevan was vandalized with spray paint and attacked with a Molotov cocktail, late Monday night.”
Armenians are suspect in my book. I could care less about the Turkish genocide against them more than a hundred years ago. Antisemites will never get my sympathy. Armenian immigration is as much to be feared as Muslim immigration.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2023/10/05/jews-are-the-enemy-armenian-terror-group-says/