10-11-2020, 06:07 PM
** 11-Oct-2020 World View: Response to Azerbaijan-Armenia article
I received a message from an Azerbaijan official, in response to
today's article on the ceasefire between Azerbaijan and Armenia:
My response:
Here's his response to me:
The last sentence made me chuckle. Generational Dynamics is all about
ancient history, and how it keeps getting repeated today.
At any rate, it's clear that this conflict is very far from being
over.
I received a message from an Azerbaijan official, in response to
today's article on the ceasefire between Azerbaijan and Armenia:
Quote:> "This sentence is the most offensive and ridiculous of
> all, showing your turcophobia: "then the Azeris could commit
> genocide and ethnic cleansing on the Armenians in
> Nagorno-Karabakh, and".
> The only side that conducted a genocide was the Armenians against
> Azerbaijanis, such as in 1992 when they committed the Khojaly
> Massacre."
My response:
Quote:> "You're right that the sentence you've referenced is
> very poorly written, and does not convey the meaning that I
> intended. I've changed the sentence on my web site. However,
> what I wrote has absolutely nothing to do with "turcophobia". It
> has to do with what I've come to view as the normal behavior of
> all human beings.
> As you may know, I've been doing this for almost 20 years. I've
> posted over 6,000 articles on my web site with analyses of
> hundreds of countries at all times in history. What I have seen
> is that people of every ethnic group, every religion, every skin
> color, etc., commit genocide, ethnic cleansing, beatings,
> atrocities, enslavement, rapes, torture, and massacres of other
> people. These acts are not aberrations. They are standard human
> behavior, part of the human DNA.
> As I've written many times, for my whole life I've heard people
> refer to the Nazi Holocaust and say "Never again!" And yet, there
> are similar Holocausts going on today in China, Myanmar, Syria,
> DRC, Cameroon, and so forth. And nobody even cares.
> So the sentence you're mentioning was just supposed to convey that
> the Azeris' actions would be standard human behavior.
> Let me explain what I mean.
> Suppose you had written to me as follows: "Mr. Xenakis, I'm deeply
> offended that you think we would do that to the Armenians. It's
> true that we've had our differences in the past, but those have
> all been resolved, and now the Azeris love the Armenians and would
> never hurt them." Lol! You didn't say anything like that, but if
> you had, I would have thought, "Wow! I must be completely wrong."
> Instead you referenced the horrific Khojaly Massacre, for which
> Azeris want revenge. Maybe it won't happen next week or next
> year, but one day the Azeris will act to get revenge for the
> Khojaly Massacre.
> And that's not all. Let's do the math. One day the Azeris will
> regain control of Karabakh, and the hundreds of thousands of
> Azeris that lost their homes in the 1990s will want to return.
> Question: How will that take place? Answer: Genocide and ethnic
> cleansing. That's standard human behavior, part of the human DNA.
> So I apologize for the poor wording of the original sentence, and
> I hope that the revised sentence on my web site is ok with you.
> Thanks for your message, and I hope you're doing well."
Here's his response to me:
Quote:> "Dear Mr Xenakis,
> Thank you for making the change on your website.
> In terms of how would the almost 1 million Azerbaijani
> refugees/IDPs return - it would not require any genocide or ethnic
> cleansing, sir. Armenia has occupied 16% of Azerbaijani, which
> included not just the Nagorno-Karabakh region, but 7 districts
> adjacent to it. Those 7 districts were about 99% Azerbaijani. They
> had about 600,000 people living there. Another 240,000 lived in
> Armenia itself -- they won't be able to return there and would not
> want to risk their lives to do that anyway. So that means there
> will be about 50,000 Azerbaijanis from the NK itself, with their
> kids, who will return -- to their homes and their land
> plots. Armenians have their homes there and Azerbaijanis have
> theirs. So there is no need for ethnic cleansing.
> Also, please consider the fact that Armenia has "somehow" become
> 99% monoethnic, whilst Azerbaijan is multiethnic and
> multireligious. Baku, one city, has more Christians living in it
> than all Armenians in all illegally occupied territories. Please
> think about it. There are more Jews in Azerbaijan than in Armenia
> and Georgia combined. I'm not saying Azerbaijanis are angels, but
> I'm saying that it is not the Azerbaijanis that are demons here,
> and an objective look at the facts quickly reveals where people of
> different faiths and ethnic background live more comfortably, and
> who is the victim and who is the aggressor at least for the past
> decades.
> If anyone wants to discuss more ancient history -- would gladly do
> that, but that's hardly productive."
The last sentence made me chuckle. Generational Dynamics is all about
ancient history, and how it keeps getting repeated today.
At any rate, it's clear that this conflict is very far from being
over.
