Israel Betrayed Armenians. Will It Betray Syrian Kurds Now Too?

September 27, 2020 started as a quiet Sunday morning in Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Armenian-populated area that, at first look, appears like Switzerland: Inexperienced area, rolling farms, and snow-capped mountains with church buildings and monasteries dotting mountainsides. It was simply days after the one centesimal anniversary of the Ottoman invasion of impartial Armenia on the tail finish of the Armenian Genocide, however that anniversary had handed with minimal bluster from the Turks and the Azerbaijanis.

Then the explosion started, Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians described to me after I visited weeks later. Using Israeli drones and munitions, Azerbaijan launched a shock assault on the self-governing Armenian enclave, the primary of many occasions over the following three years during which Azerbaijan broke ceasefires till it accomplished Nagorno-Kabarakh’s ethnic cleaning.

Anger towards Israel stays deep among the many Nagorno-Karabakh refugees, Armenia correct, and the broader Armenian neighborhood.

Frankly, they’re proper. Israel is without doubt one of the dwindling variety of Western nations that doesn’t acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. That anger has persevered as Azerbaijan has systematically started dismantling Armenian church buildings and sandblasting inscriptions on monasteries, some over a millennium outdated. It was a short-term and self-defeating technique on Israel’s half, as Israel’s backing of Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleaning of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians and destruction of cultural heritage created a precedent that could possibly be used towards Jews dwelling within the West Financial institution, particularly amongst Palestinians who deny any Jewish connection to the land. 

Israelis—commentator Mordechai Kedar, for instance—might argue that Azerbaijan is a haven for Jews, however that is more and more false. The arguments Kedar depends upon outdated numbers and repeats the identical techniques Iranian partisans used to argue that the Islamic Republic was merely anti-Israel, not antisemitic. The fact is that Azerbaijan has hemorrhaged its Jews for a cause. When inhabitants statistics stay unchanged for many years on finish, it’s a signal these statistics are outdated if not false.

Nor do Israel’s realist arguments to justify the Israel arms-for-Azerbaijani maintain water. Azerbaijan might as soon as have been a vital supply of power for Israel, however the Abraham Accords opened new channels absent the ethical baggage inherent in serving to a racist dictator eradicate a minority neighborhood. Privately, all however these wanting one thing Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev acknowledges how repressive and unhinged Aliyev has develop into; Aliyev himself doesn’t attempt to disguise his agenda. Nor does Israel present itself cognizant of Azerbaijan’s true position when Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan overtly plans violence towards Israel and bolsters Turkey’s personal home navy business however makes use of Azerbaijan to proceed commerce with the Jewish state. Israel must take away its strategic blinders: Each Israeli supply to Baku offers know-how Ankara can use towards Jerusalem.

Israel’s complicitly in Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic cleaning represents a stain not simply eliminated, however it could actually additionally present a lesson to not repeat: Brief time period offers with Israel’s ideological adversaries don’t deliver peace; as a substitute, they embolden enemies. Turkey might current one face to vacationers in Istanbul, Bodrum, or Antalya, however ideologically, it really works to eradicate Center Jap minorities, be they Armenian or Chaldean Christians, Syrian Kurds, Yezidi, Alawi or Jews. 

Syrian Kurds now face existential peril because the Turkish military bares down. Turkey’s accusation that the Kurds characterize a terror risk is nonsense; reasonably, Turkey objects to the Kurds’ liberalism, their self-governance, and their rejection of Erdogan Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Islam, an interpretation of Islam traditionally international to the area.

Israeli officers have beforehand provided rhetorical assist for the Kurds, however phrases solely go thus far. If Israel can ship close to month-to-month weapons shipments to Azerbaijan amounting to 70 % of Azerbaijan’s arsenal, then Israel can present Syrian Kurds with anti-aircraft missiles, drones and anti-drone know-how, and landmines to stymie the Turkish advance. 

For Israel to do nothing within the face of the Turkish onslaught can be each an ethical stain and a strategic catastrophe. Jerusalem merely can not systematically betray each Center Jap minority and count on assist when its flip comes. And Israel’s flip is coming. Each Erdogan and Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have made clear they’re gunning for the Jewish state. 

The Syrian Kurds proved they’re a power amplifier once they led the defeat of the Islamic State. They had been an amazing power amplifier for the USA. They’ll play the identical position for Israel towards Turkey and assist restore the reputational injury the Jewish state suffered 15 months in the past amongst adversaries and advocates alike in Congress and within the Center East when Azerbaijan and Turkey ran roughshod over the standard heartland of Armenian Christianity.

Concerning the Writer: Dr. Michael Rubin 

Michael Rubin is a senior fellow on the American Enterprise Institute and director of coverage evaluation on the Center East Discussion board. A former Pentagon official, Dr. Rubin has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, and each pre- and postwar Iraq. He additionally hung out with the Taliban earlier than 9/11. For greater than a decade, he taught courses at sea concerning the Horn of Africa and Center East conflicts, tradition, and terrorism, to deployed US Navy and Marine items. Dr. Rubin is the creator, coauthor, and coeditor of a number of books exploring diplomacy, Iranian historical past, Arab tradition, Kurdish research, and Shi’ite politics. The creator’s views are his personal.