Caucasus Region
The Caucasus countries are Armenia Azerbaijan and Georgia and also these bits of the disputed lens. If you do not know anything about these caucuses countries, just think of this lady crude oil and this American state. But with a way cooler history and way smaller airport, The Caucasus region is a bit like the Balkans where relatively small countries fought the hell out of each other and the politics are a hell hole. If you think the Balkan region is a clusterfuck then the Caucasus region will blow your mind sometimes literally the Caucasus countries and regions generally hate each other. Why? Well, the short answer is geography The Caucasus region forms the border between Europe and Asia and it is the buffer zone between different cultures and influences. To the north, there is mother Russia. Russia is predominantly an Orthodox Christian country that speaks the Slavic language and it is a big bully in the Caucasus region as well as Europe Central Asia and East Asia.
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| Photo by Marek Piwnicki from Pexels |
To the southwest, there is Turkey, a predominantly Sunni Islam country, which speaks the Turkic language and it used to be the Almighty Ottoman Empire that bullies the Caucasus region, the Balkans Northern Africa, and the Middle East. To the southeast, There is Iran a predominantly Shia. Islam country speaks Iranian language and it is a historical great power since the ancient times, who bullies the Caucasus region the Middle East, Central Asia and at one point, bits of Europe and northern Africa, as you can imagine being squeezed between three egoistic big bullies with different religions and cultures is not a fun experience for the Caucasus countries. On top of that, the Caucasus region itself is very diverse, which adds more gunpowder to the powder-keg region. One of the main reasons that the Caucasus region is so diverse is due to the rugged terrain as the mountains separate distinct cultures languages dialects from each other forming the so-called residual zone of language spread.
The East Region
Thus, one can find a lot of unique and isolated languages in the Caucasus region. For Armenia, the Armenian language is a language isolate in the Indo-European language. Tree Armenia loves doing its own thing. It has its church, its writings, and its calendar. Armenia used to be big and influential like this. Our taxi at dynasty back graded Armenia and this spinoff version of Armenia in cell isha. For Georgia, the Georgian language is part of the cart billion. Language is unique in the Caucasus region. Armenians reckon that the Georgian alphabet was created by Armenians and the Georgians will beg to differ anyway. Georgia loves Eastern Orthodox and it used to be big and influential like this kingdom of Georgia. All these comparatively brief moments of glorious and strong periods aside these two countries were continuously being contested from all sides to the west. There was the roman empire and later the Byzantine empire to the east.
There were the Persian empires to the south. There were the Arab Muslim caliph fats. After the Turks from Central Asia became Muslims, they expanded to the Middle East like nobody's business like these solid Turks. This is where Azerbaijan came to the scene as the Azerbaijanis are considered the descendants of those Turkic dudes from Central Asia. The Azerbaijani languages, a Turkic language, and the Azerbaijan people generally love Shia Islam the love child between Turks and Shia Iranians The fate of these three countries was now tied together as the Mongolians came along and screwed pretty much everyone. Then the Caucasus region was contested between the Ottoman Empire and Persia. Meanwhile, somewhere in Europe, mother Russia was getting stronger and stronger and it expanded south towards the Caucasus region and came to the scene for some threesomes with the Ottomans and Persia Russia eventually won and the Caucasus region was dominated by Russia for quite some time.
World War One
Fast forward World War One came along and the Ottoman said the Armenian genocide did not happen. Whilst quite a few countries said the genocide happened. As you can imagine Armenia hated Turkey. From this point onwards, Russia was knocked out of World War One and the Caucasus countries gained brief independence, fought each other and their neighbors before being reabsorbed to Russia by the Red Army. In World War two, Germany paid a brief visit and even climbed the mountain, but Stalingrad screwed Germany over and Germany had to give up its dreams of having those sexy Caucasus oil By the way this Stalin guy here is from Georgia, not as Russian as you might think. Things were relatively peaceful until the dissolution of the soviet union. Armenia loves its greater Armenia idea and thus tried to incorporate its historical Armenian lens at the expense of its neighbors.
From Armenia's point of view, this is Armenian nationalism. And Armenians in the Caucasus region have the right to self-determination. From Azerbaijan and Turkey's point of view. The Turks used to dominate the Caucasus region and hence the greater Armenian fetish is dangerous. By the way, the symbol of Armenia this mountain here is located in Turkey. Thus Armenia has more reasons to hate turkey. Also, Azerbaijan is a Turkic country, a good buddy of turkey. So when Armenia and Azerbaijan got into beef, Turkey-backed Azerbaijan So how did Armenia survived being Squeezed between two Turkic countries who hate Armenia? Well, Armenia has quite a lot of European Christian friends and more importantly, Mother Russia. The beef between Armenia and Azerbaijan manifested quite a few times and lots of people suffered said This is why this Armenian footballer could not play the 2019 Europa League final in Azerbaijan Meanwhile, Georgia is eating popcorns and trying to avoid dramas and generally being friendly to both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
However, because mother Russia is right above it, things got a bit tense. Russia supported the separatist movements in Georgia because Armenia supported Russia, things got a bit awkward between Georgia and Armenia. Bear in mind that these three countries are just half of the picture in the Caucasus region as there are more separatist movements in Russia for example, in Dagestan. Overall, one can say that Armenia is like that. One small little guy who used to be big and hopes to relive its glory days and has a lot of European friends. Azerbaijan is like that one small guy with all the oil and is very annoyed by its neighbors and has a lot of Muslim friends. Georgia is like that. One small guy who used to be big wanted to be left alone to do their things but got overshadowed by their larger neighbor. From above all these beef aside, what the Caucasus countries, average people wanted is to have some peace and prosperity But the current geopolitics will probably not let that utopia happen.
If Russia becomes weak, Georgia will eat these disputed lands alive. The power vacuum will probably cause the Caucasus region to become more unstable and Armenia will be eaten alive by its Turkic neighbor If Turkey becomes weak, Azerbaijan will probably be eaten alive by Armenia and Russia. And maybe Iran. If Iran wants to reclaim its lost territories in the 19th century, if Iran becomes weak, well Azerbaijan will lose its friend and has more reasons to be eaten alive by Armenia and Russia. Thus it seems like there are no happy endings for the Caucasus countries at least for now. Today, one of the big debates is the European nous of the Caucasus countries. If religion is used as a parameter, then Georgia will be considered European due to its love of Eastern Orthodox. Armenia can be considered both European and Asian due to its love of oriental Orthodox and Azerbaijan will most likely be associated with Asia due to its love of Shia Islam.
If geography is used as a parameter, then anything south of the Caucasus mountains will be considered Asian, in which case both Georgia and Azerbaijan are considered transcontinental countries whilst Armenia is in Asia. If historical ties are used as a parameter then Armenia and Georgia can be considered European due to their ties with Christian Europe, particularly the Byzantine empire. Whilst Azerbaijan is usually associated with Asian culture due to its historical ties with the Turks and Persians. Nevertheless, instead of trying to group these Caucasus countries into predefined rigid parameters, why not visit these countries and appreciate them as they are. The Caucasus countries are beautiful. It is like the alps but with fewer annoying tourists and more affordable. The people in the Caucasus are beautiful and exotic a marvel to behold. Indeed they have good food, natural wonders, and awesome cultural heritages. Will peace and prosperity be ever achieved between the Caucasus countries if they suddenly become very friendly with each other tolerant of each other's religion and language and kick out any foreign domination is together.