Azerbaijan’s anti-Russian demarche: why this is Ukraine’s war too

But that was a long time ago. Few even remember recent events now. Most have forgotten that the current spike in Moscow-Baku tensions began when Russians shot down an Azerbaijani plane over Chechnya and denied it landing in Russia. But the real issue wasn’t that - it was that Putin chose not to apologize. He’s used to others dancing for him. He didn’t notice the world had changed.

Or rather, he may have noticed - but apologizing would mean acknowledging the "Caucasian Tatars" (as the empire used to call Azerbaijanis) as equals. And that’s impossible. Impossible, because then he’d have to recognize the equality of Ukrainians, Belarusians, Kazakhs - and eventually also Bashkirs, Tuvans, and Chukchi.

“But Putin is in zugzwang. He can’t acknowledge anyone as equal to a Russian. And he can’t punish Baku economically either - he’s far too dependent on Ankara.”

But that’s not the main point. Our war is not just - nor mainly - about territory. It’s about being recognized as different. What Baku is doing now, what Pashinyan is doing by taking on Armenia’s Ivanishvili, are parts of a much deeper process: forcing Putin - the collective Putin - to acknowledge that Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Yakuts, Ingush, and Russians are different peoples.

We greatly underestimate this aspect of our war. Because it is, above all, a war for identity.

Source

About the author: Vadym Denysenko, political scientist.

The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.