“EXTENDING THE THEATRE”

The sudden escalation of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan smacks of a planned instigation that proves that no matter how many unwary people's blood needs to be shed to serve the interests of the US and a decaying organisation like NATO.

By Sir Charlattam

When several situations occur in a coordinated and consecutive manner, one cannot speak of coincidences, much less when the same subject is involved in all of them. The latest developments on the Armenian-Azeri border are pointing to this and inform us that "someone" is trying to spread the Ukrainian conflict scenario to other theatres.

Less than a week ago, without either of them claiming to have started it, Armenians and Azeris have broken the ceasefire after the bloody 44-day war in 2020. In this new skirmish, almost a hundred casualties are reported between the two sides. As was the case then, both sides accuse each other of having started it, but in reality there is no certainty about who actually attacked first (if indeed either of them did) and it is very likely that a third party acting from the shadows was involved.

Why do I come to this conclusion? Well, if you consider that it was Vladimir Putin's government that brokered and guaranteed the ceasefire between the two sides, it is not at all unreasonable that stoking the fires between the two sides that are contained by a nation like Russia that is itself engaged in a war in Ukraine at a very opportune moment is suspiciously convenient. In addition, the size and irregular terrain of the frontline makes it very plausible that someone could remotely (and undetected) launch a drone or surface missile attack on either side or even both simultaneously. Who might be behind it?

Let us not forget that the hand of one of its most prominent MI6 agents in Ankara would have been heavily implicated in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020. Of course, the Foreign Office pretended not to notice and if the secretary had been asked for an account we would have heard the worn-out “No comment”. Certainly, there are a number of questions that call for reflection on the motives for and expectations of this event. It was known that two weeks earlier Armenian representatives Pashinian and his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev had met in Brussels with the European Council in a quest to turn the ceasefire into a final treaty, but it was known that there was much reticence on both sides. Mutual mistrust lingers. In addition, the presence of Western elements in the region and even advising the parties reinforces suspicions of provocation. Recent events have conveniently frozen these expectations and open the door to reopening instability throughout the region. Sudden clashes on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border add to suspicions of a coordinated destabilization. The question is who stands to gain from this?

For NATO, distracting Russian forces and forcing them to deploy in different parts of its vast geography would mean a weakening of operations in Ukraine.

As we know, Washington long before the war in Ukraine had produced a report on how to wear down Russia by opening up, through various methods and actors, various scenarios of instability. The timing is ideal. After the Ukrainian counteroffensive on Kharkov (led by NATO) that forced a Russian withdrawal, creating problems for Moscow in other regions beyond this scenario would be within the logic of the expected attrition. In light of this, the concentrated media is constantly talking about a triumphalist Ukrainian epic that is clearly part of the SBU's psychological operations under the direction of “Five Eyes”. But make no mistake, while Zelensky and his cronies believe it is for Ukraine this tends to ultimately benefit Brussels.

The development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit that began on 15 September in Uzbekistan would also be another of the objectives to be scrubbed with the resumption of hostilities in the Caucasus. It is an entity that seeks to become a forum of multilateralism in which Russia, China and an important part of the world can find, through respect for cultural diversity and political sovereignty, a space and new formulas for dialogue among its members. Interestingly, Armenia and Azerbaijan are members of this organisation and the events of the last few days have clouded their participation and it may be impossible to seat them in this forum at the same time.

The potential for the SCO to become a broader and more influential trade and economic cooperation bloc is increasingly foreseeable. While the West is committed to pouring trillions of dollars into armaments to fuel war in Europe, Eurasia is projecting an alternative, participatory capitalism far removed from the sinister dynamics on which the US has sustained its economy for the past 30 years. Just on this occasion, Iran signed the memorandum of accession to the organisation, which signals the beginning of greater possibilities that include countries in distant regions such as Latin America - possible, very real and undoubtedly something that the White House and its lackeys in the European Union are not at all amused about.

For Washington and its obsequious supporters in the EU (Joseph Borrell; Ursula Von Leyen, Macron, Schol) and of course Liz Truss's Tory cronies, such organisations promulgate a geopolitical agenda that represents a challenge to their hegemonism and a threat to the already unveiled plan for NATO to penetrate Asia regardless of the means and consequences.