One of the most significant geopolitical events of 2020, if not the most important, was the Nagorno-Karabakh War between Azerbaijan and Armenia where the former secured strategic victories over the latter. During the conflict, Azerbaijan received support from Turkey and Pakistani fighters reached the region as well in order to aid Azerbaijan’s war efforts.
One of the direct impacts of the war was that the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), the largest Armenian American political organization, urged the United States to demand the blacklisting of Pakistan by the FATF for funding “Jihadist Mercenaries” against Armenia.
Now, regional analysts believe India and Armenia should enhance cooperation between themselves in order to counter the Pakistan-Turkey nexus. In recent times, Turkey has backed Pakistan over key matters such as Kashmir. Reports have also surfaced which link radical Islamist organisations like PFI coordinating with Erdogan backed Turkish NGOs.
Yeghia Tashjian, regional analyst and researcher, at a webinar organised by New Delhi based international observer group Red Lantern Analytica (RLA) on the 5th of March, said that Turkey is attempting to establish an alliance with countries such as Pakistan in order to counter the influence of India and Russia.
The subject of the webinar was “Deciphering Hatred: Armenian genocide by Turkey & Hindu and Sikh Genocide by Pakistan”.
Tashijan is of the opinion that India, Iran and Armenia should increase cooperation between themselves to curtail Turkish expansionism under Erdogan. To further his point, he said that there is a legitimate threat that Turkey might send its mercenaries to Kashmir.
Anush Ghavalyan, an analyst from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), said that Artsakh had received a great deal of support from Indians on social media and hoped that India will continue its support for the region.
During the conflict, India had announced that it India “followed with great concern the escalation of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh with considerable ingress of Armenian forces into Azerbaijan” and had called for “respecting each other’s’ territorial integrity and inviolability of existing borders”.
Turkey was responsible for the infamous Armenian genocide, when a million ethnic Armenians were targeted through systematic ethnic cleansing by the Ottoman Empire during World War 1.
Thus far, India has maintained strategic neutrality regarding the matter. However, given Turkey’s recent inclinations, experts argue that India should respond by increasing its cooperation with Armenia at an international level.