Turkish Proxies Continue Attacks in Armenia, Syria // FAI ONLINE

The current Azeri and Armenian conflict over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh began last September, when Azeri forces invaded the disputed territory to “liberate” it. (File Photo, EPA)

Amateur video posted to social media showed civilians streaming out of Stepanakert this weekend, as Azeri forces reached the outskirts of the capital city of the disputed region in Armenia. Stephanakert (known as Khankendi in Azeri) is the capital of the ethnically-mixed border region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been disputed between the modern states of Azerbaijan and Armenia since their inception following the First World War.

The Azeri offensive on Stepanakert follows the announcement by Azeri President Ilham Aliyev that his forces had taken the nearby city of Shusi (or Şuşa in Azeri) after weeks of intense fighting in the city and its environs. Shushi is the second-largest city in Nagorno-Karabakh, siting on a strategic vantage point just 15 kilometers from the capital. However, the Armenian defense ministry disputed Aliyev’s claim, reporting that fighting in the city was ongoing and that neither side held an advantage. Turkish Defense Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met with his Azeri counterpart in the capital of Baku on Sunday, celebrating the alleged Azeri victory and reinforcing the Turkish government’s support for Azerbaijan in the conflict. The Azeris are a Muslim Turkic minority in the Caucus Region and are historical allies of Turkey since the days of the Ottoman Empire. Shushi had been a political and religious center for Christian Armenia since the Middle Ages, until the Azeri population of the city massacred over 500 Armenians and drove most of those remaining out of the city, burning and looting hundreds of Armenian homes, businesses and churches. The Armenian government reclaimed Shushi and the Nagorno-Karabakh region from Azerbaijan when the two nations went to war in 1992 after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has demanded that Armenia withdraw from the disputed territory. Over 1,000 people have died in the conflict since September.

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Meanwhile, Turkish-backed militias are continuing their offensive against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Northeast Syria. The jihadist militants have stepped up their campaign against the US-allied SDF in the past few weeks in the areas around Ain al-Issa and Tel Tamr, just one year after Turkish President Erdogan announced “Operation Peace Spring” in October, 2019. Over 300,000 civilians, mostly Kurds and other minorities, have been displaced from their homes since the beginning of the invasion.

We ask the global FAI family to continue in prayer for the people of Armenia and Syrian Kurdistan, who live in the shadow of Turkish Islamist aggression. We pray for a hedge of divine protection around vulnerable civilian populations, for the designs of the Turkish regime and its proxies to be frustrated, and for the hidden things of darkness to be exposed.

Maranatha.