Thread to sum up my criticism of the reporting of German media on Azerbaijan's war on Artsakh, which includes portraying war criminals as victims who have to care for their families:
Most reports trivialize the situation. The @tagesschau wrote on Monday, that the situation could at some point escalate into a war.
However, there is already a lot of footage showing fighting as well as utterly brutal drone- and artillery strikes. This is clearly a war.
(1/12)
Also, @tagesschau outweighs Turkey's involvement by saying Russia supports Armenia.
While technically, there is an alliance in the CSTO, Russia did nothing to support Armenia. Yesterday, Putin even said that there will no Russian involvement in Artsakh.
(2/12)
@derspiegel reports about Erdogan's auxiliaries at the front. However, the fighter it managed to contact is presented as a poor father who has to feed his family in a refugee camp, as fearful due to the war and as a rebel against Assad.
(3/12)
@derspiegel doesn't mention with a single word that these fighters are feared for murders, kidnappings, rape, expropriations, looting and displacement in occupied Efrîn and that the last operation against Assad ended in Turkey arresting the responsible commander.
(4/12)
@zeitonline and @SZ can't even be bothered to do basic research and write that the presence of Erdogan's auxiliaries is only an Armenian allegation.
The latter is so uninterested, that the Armenian capital Yerevan is written Erwin instead.
(5/12)
To @SZ, it's also unclear who started the war, despite previous pro-war demonstrations in Azerbaijan and a prepared offensive including the deployment of auxiliaries from Syria.
(6/12)
None of them mentions, that in case of Azerbaijan capturing Artsakh, the native Armenians would have to expect ethnic cleansing and even progroms.
I continue the article by explaining some background to the conflict and the ethnic history of Artsakh.
(7/12)
This includes "Kurdistana Sor" a region between core-Artsakh (around Stepanakert) and Armenia proper, where Kurds were expelled from along the Azeris of lower Karabakh.
Their return has to be made possible, but not with a war.
(8/12)
There also is the toxic nationalism of Azerbaijan, which led to the expulsion of pretty much all Armenians and is working on the full assimilation of other ethnic minorities like the Talysh, Lezgins and Udi.
(9/12)
For information about the Talysh people, I recommend to follow @_Tolysh and @Tolish_media
On the tragic story of the Udi, I've written a short thread:
I conclude the article by criticizing the pseudo-pacifist indifference of German media and politics regarding the war and the still quite favourable reporting on Erdogan's regional striving for hegemony - something that can be transfered to most of "Western" media.
(11/12)
What especially makes me angry is, that these journlists are getting paid for this absolutely insufficient work, yet it's the very same journalist community that looks down on (unpaid) activists like me, because don't try to act like I'm reporting unbiased.
(12/12)
*What I tried to say there: They have biased reporting, too, but they try to act like they're neutral.
Thread on the tragic story of the Udi people of Northern Azerbaijan:
The Udi are a small minority of maybe 5,000 to 10,000 and are speaking a language related to Lezgian and are mostly adherents of the Armenian Apostoplic Church.
The latter is also where their problem starts. (1/8)
The main settlement of the Udi was called Vartashen, where about 3,000 Udi speakers lived in the 80s, along some Armenians and Jewish Tats.
However, with the escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh war - despite being far away - the Udi were cleansed from their homes. (2/8)
Thread:
I did some research on factional affiliation of al-'Uqaydat tribal confederacy's al-Bu Kamal branch in #DayrAzZawr province before the takeover of #IS and got some surprising results:
1) The most influental local Brigade in the area between al-Bahrah and the Iraqi border clearly appears to have been Liwa' Ahl al-Athar (@Alathr2012).
The Brigade was explicitly an al-'Uqaydat tribal brigade of the #FSA.
2) Another local faction was Liwa' 'Umar al-Mukhtar. It had a few members from the environs of ash-Sha'fah, but its headquarters were located in al-Bu Kamal city and it's support base also was predominantly urban.
Demonstrations against SDF spread again along the Euphrates valley (Bayt 'Uqaydat and Bayt Baqarah) and the lower Khabur valley in Dayr az-Zawr.
These protests are mostly against the rule of the SDF and the lack of services like water supply.
Demonstrations took place in al-Jiyah directly north of DeZ against the killing of a man (exact circumstances unclear).
In Abu Naytal, a village on the Khabur with many IS supporters that is making problems since months, there tensions occured as well.
Village youth attacked a SDF patrol in the desert. After this, SDF surrounded the village and arrested two men.
Protests in Suwaydan (another town where IS lately ambushed and killed SDF members) targeted SDF for theft in the local shops and accused them of killing a young man.
Thread about the clashes between SAA and SDF north of Dayr az-Zawr today with information I gathered and own thoughts:
1) In the morning, SAA captured the villages al-Junaynah, al-Ma'ishiyah, ash-Shaqrah, al-Jiyah and al-'Ulay'an (position of the latter unknown).
According to Euphrates post, all SAA gains have been reversed by a SDF counteroffensive this afternoon.
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2) SDF brought in reinforcements from Conoco gas and al-Umar oilfield and got heavy air support from the International Coalition.