By Raoul Lowery Contreras
SAN DIEGO — Camel caravans of nomadic Muslim Arabs in Saudi Arabia were my first exposure to Muslims. They were described to me by my grandfather when he returned from working on post-WWII oil fields in 1946-47. He was ordered home when war broke out between Saudi Arabia and the newly-born Jewish state, Israel.
In one form or another, that war has continued in desert battlegrounds and diplomatic venues to this day. It seems we are but steps away from more conflict in the Eastern Mediteranean and/or in the Caucasus Region where an almost thirty-year conflict between Christians and Muslims is tempered by a 28-year-old ceasefire.
Despite the ceasefire and diplomatic efforts by OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) and the United Nations to settle the conflict and ending occupation of 20% of the Republic of Azerbaijan by Armenian forces, the only shots fired in anger this writer has ever heard despite eight years in the United States Marine Corps (1959-1967) were heard 500 yards away from Armenian-occupied Azerbaijan territory while I was standing in “No Man’s Land.” They were fired from Russian-supplied artillery fired on the “line of conflict” at Azerbaijan forces.
A couple hundred miles away, however, I found a huge new (November 2019) statue of a soldier commanding a tank in the 1992 war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. His name – Albert Aqarunov (ah-kah-roon-ohv). Tank Commander Albert Aqarunov.
The 23-year-old Tank Commander Albert Aqarunov was killed by a sniper in the final days of the Battle of Shusa on May 7, 1992, after leading tanks in battle so effectively he was named a National Hero of Azerbaijan, a hero of a new army that fought against better armed Armenian-Russian forces that had run roughshod since their massacre of hundreds of unarmed men, women and children three months earlier at Khojaly, Azerbaijan.
Tank Commander Aqarunov’s reputation as a combat leader was enhanced by his clearing, when possible, bodies of dead soldiers so that his tanks didn’t inadvertently desecrate them.
National Heroes come and go. How many Americans, for example, have heard of Texan Audie Murphy, our most decorated soldier of World War Two (WWII) or of fellow-Texan Cleto Rodriguez, the second most decorated American WWII soldier?
One huge factor separates Tank Commander Albert Aqarunov from other national heroes even of the United States; Azerbaijan is a 95 percent Muslim country sandwiched between Muslim Iran on the south and Russian Muslim territory on the north.
Tank Commander Albert Aqarunov was Jewish.
National Hero of Azerbaijan Albert Aqarunov was trained as a conscript teenager truck driver in the Soviet Army of 1986-7. He was just an ordinary citizen when he answered the call for volunteers to fight invading Armenians. He was, however, a member of the Jewish community that to this day is a respected part of Azerbaijan’s 10-million people.
There are approximately 30,000 Jews in Azerbaijan today. They are concentrated in the capital Baku and north of it in Quba. Those are called Mountain Jews; they have two synagogues. In Baku there are “two and a half” synagogues. There is a “Mountain Jew” synagogue, an Ashkenazi one which also has a separate room for Georgian Jews with roots in next door Republic of Georgia.
Ashkenazi Jews have German roots; they emigrated to Baku, Azerbaijan, over a century ago to work in what was a leading oil producing region that pioneered the world-wide oil industry. During WWII, Azerbaijan sheltered 10,000 Ashkenazi Jews from Nazi organized extermination in the the Holocaust.
Azerbaijan was a forward looking country during its independence years of 1918-21 in which Jews could work in medicine, business, law, in government and the military. Women could vote a year before American women could vote. The free democratic 1918 government was extinguished by Communist Armenian and Russian Bolshevik armies. Synagogues were shut down by the Soviet Communists. Jews were not allowed to function during the 70 years of Soviet Communism. That ended in 1991 when Azerbaijan broke away from the Soviet Union.
Today, Isreal buys 40 percent of its oil from Muslim Azerbaijan. It sells billions of dollars in defense equipment to Muslim Azerbaijan. Israeli tourists visit Azerbaijan. The Pope visited Azerbaijan. Trade routes through Azerbaijan are now new rails; ships that use a modern port on the Caspian Sea, and air space the United States of America used to reach Afghanistan in its decades long fight against terrorism which Azerbaijan has partnered with the U.S. since September 11, 2001.
A Jewish woman serves as a justice on the Azerbaijani Supreme Court.
Today, Tank Commander Albert Aqarunov, a Jew, is a National Hero in Muslim Azerbaijan. That is a two-way historic accomplishment we should all realize in considering the ongoing half-century dispute between Israel, a Jewish state, and Muslims.
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Raoul Lowery Contreras is the author of Murder in the Mountains: War Crime in Khojoly & the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict and White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPS) & Mexicans. He formerly wrote for the New America News Service of the New York Times Syndicate.
Raoul Lowery Contreras selectively deletes facts to impress an uninformed readership. Let’s looks at a sampling.
I. The statue to Albert Agarunov exists because Agarunov killed Armenians, not because he was Jewish. It does not say “Jew” on the statue, but rather it states Azərbaycanın Milli Qəhrəmanı (Azerbaijani Nation Hero). Agarunov was awarded the same status as ax-murder Ramil Safarov. At night, Azerbaijani officer Safarov broke into the dormitory room of Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan during a 2004 NATO training seminar in Hungary and axed him to death while asleep. Safarov was given a life sentence in Hungary. After eight years in prison, he was extradited to Azerbaijan and awarded the status of Azerbaijani National Hero, just as Agarunov. If one kills Armenians, one receives the status of an Azerbaijani National Hero.
II: What do Jews in Azerbaijan have to say about their “idyllic” life? I refer to two articles, one in the Times of Israel and the other the Israel National News. In 1991, 16,000 Jews were living in Baku; today, there are less than 8,000. A year and a half ago, the Jews of Baku sold their community center due to “a dwindling Jewish community.” According to these Jewish publications, half of Azerbaijan’s Jews live in the mountains, meaning there are not 30,000 Jews living in Azerbaijan, but more like half that number, or 15,000, with more Jews leaving Azerbaijan every day. Raoul Lowery Contreras contradicts facts seen in other Jewish publications.
III. Author Raoul Lowery Contreras claims, “Ashkenazi Jews have German roots.” I will leave this claim for others to address.
IV. Author Contreas also claims, “During WWII, Azerbaijan sheltered 10,000 Ashkenazi Jews from Nazi organized extermination in the Holocaust.” If this were accurate, why hasn’t Azerbaijan received any Righteous Among Nations awards? Of course, Contreras neglected to state that Armenia was bestowed 24 Righteous Among Nations awards.
Yerevan, Armenia
Davidian ignores the fact that the longtime President Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia bragged about his forces massacring over 600 unarmed men, women and children at Khojaly, Azerbaijan on February 26, 1992. He did so to Caucasus expert/scholar Thomas de Waal who has published the direct quote…. He also ignores the fact that Armenians served in the German Army during World War Two and that an Armenian National Hero Garegin Nzhdeh – leader of the Armenian battalions in the German Army — is honored with a monument in Armenia’s capital.
(https://eurasianet.org/russia-picks-fight-with-armenia-over-nazi-collaboration). Moreover, the Jewish population in Azerbaijan is relatively stable at 30,000, unlike Armenia’s that has dwindled from an estimated 10,000 in 1959 to an estimated 300 today. Moreover, a national survey conducted and published by the Anti-Defamation League ranks Armenia as one of the most anti-Semitic nations in the world.
(http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/22114)
The Khojaly Genocide – the tragedy of the 20th century – was a result of Armenian’s aggressive and criminal policy. The Khojaly Genocide is comparable to the genocides in Khatin, and Songmi.
613 people were killed, 1000 peaceful people of different age became invalid during Khojaly Genocide. 106 women, 63 children, 70 old men were killed. 8 families were completely annihilated, 130 children lost one parents, while 25 both of them. 1275 peace residents were taken hostages, the fate of 150 of them is still unknown.
According to the Russian remidial centre “Мемориал”, 200 corpses had been brought from Khojaly to Agdam for 4 days, tens of humiliation facts has been discovered on them. 181 corpses (130 men and 51 women) were made forensic medical examination in Aghdam. According to the examination 151 persons dead in result of bullet wound, 20 – missile wound, 10 people were killed with blunt instrument. Remidial centre discovered fact of scalping of alive man.
Episodes of Khojaly Genocide terrify people. Antiga, the resident of Khojaly, was burned alive because she did not say “these places are part of Great Armenia”. Khojaly resident Sariya Talibova told: “heads of 4 meskhetis and 3 Azerbaijanis were cut off over armenian grave. Then they extracted eyes of 2 Azerbaijanis”.
In Khojaly Armenians outraged upon survors. They scalped, cut people’s head and other organs off, extracted eyes of children, choped stomaches of pregnant women. Forbidden bullets of 5,45 calibre and chemical weapons were used in Khojaly during the attack. All these facts prove that Armenia commited genocide against civil people, violating Geneva convention protokhol concerning war rules.
Khojaly Genocide teriified jurnalist and publicists of Russia, Georgia, Great Britain, France, Germany, the USA etc.
The crime should not remained without punishment. In February 2011, five members of the US House of Representatives, Steve Cohen (D-TN), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Sue Myrick (R-NC) and Bill Shuster (R-PA), have issued Congressional statements remembering the victims of Khojaly Genocide and condemning the crime.
On March 3, 2011, the Texas House of Representatives passed a resolution 535 recognizing and commemorating victims of the Khojaly Genocide.
On December 21, 2011, the Mexican Senate recognized Khojaly as Genocide.
On February 1, 2012, the Pakistan Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee adopted resolution on recognition of Khojaly Genocide.
Colombia recognized Khojaly as a Genocide against Azerbaijan people by armenians.
On February 21, 2012, the Texas House of Representatives passed a resolution recognizing and commemorating victims of the Khojaly Genocide for a second time.
On January 28, 2013, US New Mexico Senate recognized Khojaly Genocide
On January 31, 2013, The House of Representatives of the US state of Arkansas recognized the Khojaly Genocide.
International organizations, parlaments of the world states must give political-legal appraisal of Khojaly Genocide – millitary crime, commited by the Armenian Republic in the Azerbaijan territories.
David, I have a question for you; how many Jews or Muslims live in Armenia? Let me help you out. The answer is none. Because Armenians forced everyone including Russians out of their country. Especially Azerbaijani population was tortured, killed and kicked out from their ancestral lands. Trust me, you dont have a valid counterargument to the fact that in Armenia none Armenians are not welcomed. Regarding Albert, he was bestowed one of the greatest honors because he was defending his homeland from foreign aggression. And he died with honor.