Sultan Erdogan at the Gate of Vienna

People have different understanding of civilization. When celebrating 561^th anniversary of conquest of Constantinople in 2014 Erdogan claimed, “Civilization comes with conquest.” Celebration of the conquest of Constantinople is a big annual event in modern Turkey. Reuters, Anadolu, RT, Deutsche Welle, and municipality of Istanbul provided information about celebration of 559^th, 560^th, 561^th,  562^th, 563^th, 564^th, 565^th, 566^th and 567^th anniversary of the conquest. In another claim Erdogan declared that Jerusalem is their city. He was referring to 400 years occupation of the city. For him it does not matter who built the cities (and historical treasures) and who lives there: it is yours if you conquered and “owned” it at one point in the past. It will not be surprising if one day Athens, Belgrade and other cities are declared Turkish.

Erdogan looks at the world via the prism of an empire created by Turkish tribes in Asia Minor in the 14^th century that disintegrated after its defeat in World War I. He tries to inject growing sense of Islamic identity into population and makes religion the central piece of domestic agenda. Back in 2014 a young Turk in Istanbul was claiming that “Ayasofya is a symbol for the Islamic world and the symbol of Istanbul’s conquest. Without it, the conquest is incomplete, we have failed to honour Sultan Mehmet’s trust”. In 2020 Ayasofia became a mosque. Constantinople is reconquered.

For Armenians Erdogan is simply another bloody sultan. His ottoman predecessors sucked Armenian blood for more than five centuries. In January 1915 Young Turks blamed Armenian treachery as the reason for the loss in the battle of Sarikamis against Russia and started the Armenian Genocide in April 1915. According to Encyclopedia Britannica “The Armenian Genocide laid the ground for the more homogeneous nation-state that eventually became the Republic of Turkey”.

100 years later 92% of Armenians still have positive opinion about Armenian-Russian relations. However, Armenian love for Russia and Russians may diminish if Russia does not fulfil its role of the strategic ally as a member of Collective Security Treaty Organization and continues to seek commercial interests by supplying weapons to Azerbaijan despite the anti-Armenian rhetoric of its leadership.

Nowadays Erdogan manipulates with Azerbaijan dictator Aliev and pushed his army exceeding 426 thousands to attack Armenia and Artsakh that has total military personnel of 245 thousands. BBC, the Guardian, WSJ , France24 , the Investigative Journal, the National Post and others reported about transfer of couple of thousands of jihadist militants from Syria to Azerbaijan to fight against Armenians. Jihadists are fighting against Armenians not because Azerbaijan does not have enough manpower but probably to help Turkish instructors to control the Azeri army and to please the imperial ambitions of Erdogan.  On 1 October 2020 Russian and Turkish Foreign Ministers recognized inadmissibility of engagement of illegal military groups from other parts of the world which means that there is such evidence.

On 1 October 2020 in an unprecedented joint statement Macron, Trump and Putin, the Presidents of countries that co-chair the OSCE Minsk group in charge for finding peaceful solution to the conflict, called for an immediate ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh (known in Armenia as Artsakh). Note: the three Presidents did not make any call to Erdogan, did not mention his name or Turkey. However, Erdogan – the meddler – challenged the three Presidents calling the demand for a truce “unacceptable”. A longtime United States ally, Turkey, uses American-made F-16 jets against ethnic Armenians in Artsakh. The US should take on responsibility for that and act.

While their peers are playing World of Tanks, 18-22 years old Armenian boys are destroying real tanks in real battlefield where Azery army with the help of Turkish instructors and terrorists attack Armenian towns and villages in Artsakh. Last week Yura Alaverdyan destroyed 9 tanks and one military vehicle, Edgar Markosyan destroyed 10 tanks and David Grigoryan destroyed 15 tanks and one armored military vehicle.

However, this cannot continue forever. Stepanakert and other Armenian towns and villages are being shelled every day. French journalists have already been injured while the BBC team and representatives of other media were shelled.

On the 15^th of July 1683, 300,000 Ottoman soldiers stood before the gates of Vienna. Only 10,000 soldiers were protecting Vienna. On 12 September 1683 the 75,000 strong army of Europeans under the leadership of Jan Sobieski attacked and defeated Turks at the Kahlenberg near Vienna.

In his most recent interview Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan suggested that if Turkey succeeds in its fight against Armenians in Artsakh Europeans should expect them at Vienna. Armenian people agree with their Prime Minister. Erdogan’s Army is fighting against Armenia and Artsakh. Today Artsakh is the gate to Vienna. The barbarian that attempts to “resurrect” the Ottoman Empire and positions himself like a sultan is at the gate.

Artak Kyurumyan

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