I spoke to you about liberal democracy, the power of speech and contradictory actions, barely two weeks ago. I was talking to you about the importance of living up to our values, which, if they continue to remain empty shells, will only resonate in the forums of career-starved humanists or on international stages thirsty for enlightenment. , and will permanently demonetize the very idea of democracy. It is time to put an end to this artifice otherwise we fall into the observation of Georges Bernanos: “Democracies cannot do without being hypocrites any more than dictatorships can do without being cynical”.
Already, on September 21, during the United Nations General Assembly, the new Guinean head of state, Mamadi Doumbouya, a claimed putschist, who until then had discussed, in the country and elsewhere, the beret and military uniform or the suit and tie, presented himself before the world in a white boubou and hat – a crude attempt to stand out from the West. And he declared at the UN that “Africa suffers from a model of governance that has been imposed on us, a model that is certainly good and effective for the West, which has designed it throughout its history.” , but who has difficulty moving on and adapting to our reality. Unfortunately, I would like to say that the transplant did not take.” Abandoning the hypocritical discourse of the West, he already knows his cynical breviary.
Armenia. This is the test for liberal democracies. Nagorno-Karabakh is inexorably emptying of its majority Armenian population, who present themselves, panic-stricken and without any hope of return, without luggage and in slippers, at the Lachin corridor, the only land route to Armenia. Corridor that Azerbaijan closed nine months ago, imposing an inhumane blockade on some 120,000 Armenians, who suffered from hunger and cold, the absence of medicine and support. Silence already from Western countries, too busy with Ukraine. Understand, it is impossible to be on two fronts, to flex your muscles in front of two enemies, and the Turkish-Azerbaijani adversary is more complicated to fight. Azeri gas and oil, Turkey’s sneaky partner of NATO and guardian of European borders with billions poured into the pockets of the neo-Sultan Erdogan who dreams of himself as a red sultan, the sinister Abdülhamid II, also known as “the Bleeder”, the one who already, before the genocide of 1915, had slaughtered Armenians during the pogroms of 1894-1896. Becoming aware very late of the trap of Russian dependence with Nord Stream I and II only to fall, as soon as the latest corruptions have come to light, into dependence on two other tyrants, it is no longer even stupidity, it is a stubborn refusal to see the future.
In the name of the resurrected Ottoman Empire
Who owns Nagorno-Karabakh? Armenian since Antiquity, it came under Arab domination for a short time in the Middle Ages before revolting and becoming Armenian again. Then came the Russian colonization of 1805. The first war between Armenia and Azerbaijan around this territory dates from the Russian revolution of 1917 which ended in 1921 with an unjustified decision by Stalin that Nagorno-Karabakh will not end up paying: he decides to attach it to Azerbaijan despite its overwhelmingly Armenian population. But the region managed to wrest its autonomy until… 1988 and the second war between Armenia and its Azerbaijani neighbor. This left 30,000 dead, ending in 1994 with a ceasefire and the unilateral declaration of independence of Nagorno-Karabakh.
In 1991 the Minsk group was created, co-chaired by France, the United States and Russia, supposed to monitor these borders, which were tense to say the least. Then, it’s September 2020 and the forty-four day war, massive aid from Turkey which allows Azerbaijan to recover the territories lost in 1994 and Nagorno-Karabakh to maintain its increasingly precarious status. of autonomous region. And while we were expecting France and the United States (as co-chairs of the Minsk group), nothing at all. To the absent subscribers liberal democracies! It is in Moscow that the Armenian Nikol Pashinian and the Azeri Ilham Aliev sign a ceasefire which is not one, since Aliev is just waiting for the right moment to take Nagorno-Karabakh. And certainly more, in the name of the resurrected Ottoman Empire. While liberal democracies wonder what to do, without getting involved, and thus renounce what they are, what holds them up. “Renunciation: heroism of mediocrity.” wrote Natalie Clifford-Barney.
* Abnousse Shalmani is a writer and journalist committed against the obsession with identity