Shortened for J. Publ. Dual Goliaths against David
Posted on November. 11. 2022
“If you want to enjoy the rainbow,
be prepared to endure the storm”.
— Warren W. Wiersbe
By Z. S. Andrew DemirdjiaN
Many of us already know the most iconic and celebrated tales from the Old Testament, especially the parable how David, as a young boy, slew the giant Goliath. This story is an inspiring example of how the intrepid underdog could defeat an adversary much bigger than him by venturing against the odds with a sharp mind.
For those of us who are foggy about the story or if the story is lost in the mist of time, let us summarize it quickly. The narrative of David’s duel with Goliath is found in 1 Samuel 17. The Israelites were getting ready for a battle against the Philistines. A valley was separating the two armies, each of which stood ready on a mountain. The Philistines had Goliath as their champion, who was a giant of over nine feet in height, wearing armor and carrying a huge spear.
Every day, Goliath walked out to the Israelite army and challenged them to send forward one Israelite to fight him in a single combat, to settle the issue and decide the winner.
Goliath, as the mighty warrior, struck fear in the hearts of the Israelites, and even King Saul was very apprehensive. Despite all that intimidation, the young shepherd-boy David accepted the danger to face Goliath’s challenge by arming himself only with his staff, a sling, and five smooth stones he took from the nearby brook and placed them in his shepherd’s bag.
The duel began in an electric atmosphere. At that decisive moment, David used his sling to hurl a stone at his opponent. As intended, the stone struck Goliath in the forehead or maybe in the groin as the picture sheds light on the scholarly controversy, and the Philistine fell face-down to the ground instantly dead. David then cut off his head. Afterwards, David was rewarded with a place at Saul’s court.
Now, fast forward, we have a new story, except that instead of one Goliath, we have two giants against David who is armed with an old fashioned Russian sling whose rubbers are frayed from age and the heat of the sun.
Here is the new cast of characters:
Goliath # 1 is the Azerbaijan/Turkey alliance cemented through the “Shushi Declaration” treaty on June 15, 2021. During President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visit to occupied Shushi, he signed the Shushi Declaration with President Ilham Aliyev to solidify their allied relations against their common adversary. The declaration, a treaty for all practical purposes, consists of many cultural; economic cooperation and development, and how to divide the loot from the Armenians, and particularly mutual defense and military aid.
The main implication of this Goliath is for Armenia and Artsakh in the South Caucuses. During the 1990s, Azerbaijan was a weakling militarily. Now, with modern weapons plus the alliance with Turkey’s proxy forces, Azerbaijan finds itself invincible Goliath and tries to bully Armenia into making vital concessions as is being evidenced during the September 13-14 incursions into Armenia proper. Based on its newly acquired military prowess and with an alliance with a NATO powerhouse Turkey, which repeatedly assures Azerbaijan that Turkey and Azerbaijan are “One Nation and Two States,” Azerbaijan has been forcing to sign a lopsided treaty to make Armenia consent the establishment of so-called Zangezur Corridor and also to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) as part of Azerbaijan.
In fact, Turkey is using Azerbaijan for its proxy wars to force Armenia to give a corridor through Syunik province (marz) to realize Turky’s longstanding dream of reaching its ancestors in Central Asia and establish one long confederation of Turkic people from Turkey all the way to north China (to reach their Uyghur brothers and sisters who want to be independent of China).
Goliath #2 is The Organization of Turkic States (OTS), whose founding members are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey. OTS was formerly called the Turkic Council or the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, is an international organization comprising of prominent independent Turkic countries.
I call this growing organization the “Turkic NATO or Turkic CSTO.” During the 7th Summit held in Baku in October 2019, Uzbekistan joined as a full member; Hungary received Observer Member status of OTS during its 6th Summit in Cholpon-Ata; Kyrgyz Republic joined in September 2018; And in the 8th Summit held in November 2021, Turkmenistan joined as an Observer Member of OTS.
Soon Finland, Bulgaria, and other European nations of Turkic origin are expected to join the Organization of Turkic States including those of Uighars in northern China, Japan, Estonia, Moldavia (the Christian Turks), some Greek islands in the Aegean, Siberian people, including perhaps the American Indians and Japan.
Uralic languages of Turkic origin are spoken by more than 25 million people throughout northeastern Europe, northern Asia, and through North America. The most demographically important Uralic language is Hungarian, the official language of Hungary. Two other Uralic languages, Estonian (the official language of Estonia) and Finish (one of two national languages of Finland and the other one is Swedish).
Turkic people, an ethnic group covering some 140 million people in Central Asia alone, the place of Turkish peoples’ origin. Naturally, the world Turkic people comprises of triple that number when you expand the geography of where people of Turkic origin have conquered and live now, such as a stretch of countries and regions from Southern Europe to Western China where the people are Turkic.
There is a Turkish awakening in full force to unite and expand territorially just like the glory days of the Ottoman Empire; The sentiment is characterized by President Recep Tayyap Erdogan’s policy to regain former Ottoman Empire’s territories as much as possible through Machiavellianism and military force. In fact, the dream of Pan-Turkism was launched by Jewish, and not Turkish, leaders holding important positions in the Ottoman Empire.
Mehemet Akaby, a citizen of Istanbul, had claimed once to a foreign reporter that “Turks have never been colonized…Self-esteem and ambition are in our genes.” It would be very difficult to disagree with that statement coming from one of the sons of the Turkish conquerors who in the past as well as in the present follow the ardent “ambition” to have someone else’s property just as a thousand years ago the nomadic tribes from Central Asia had preyed upon other countries.
It so seems that the world nations at one time were all conquered by Turkish nomadic tribes exploding from the deserts and steppes of Central Asia to dominate the settled, civilized nations engaged in agriculture. The descendents of the conquerors are very aggressive and bent on reviving the Turkish Empire to rule the modern world through the unification of the Turkish speaking people and through population growth, especially in European countries.
During the 1992 meeting in Baku, the ministers of culture from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan, unanimously declared their commitment to cooperate in a joint “cultural” framework. Thus, another Goliath (called OTS) was born to add to the mighty power of Azerbaijan and Turkey alliance.
To conceal the real mission of OTS, they adopted the word “cultural” in their main activates to sound non-political or a confederation of Turkic nations ready to conquer more territories in the world. By and large, the alliances are military.
OTS is quickly becoming an avalanche, a kinetic force in the making, a Goliath to reckon with in every sense of the word.
The main implication of this giant OTS organization to Armenia and Artsakh is in the possible support to get from the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The treaty was signed in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) on May 15, 1992 by the heads of states of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.
Three of the six CSTO members are Turkic (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and are members of OTS. Additionally, a great portion of the population of Belarus is of Turkic origin. To make matters worse, Belarus is against Armenia and Artsakh. When an Armenian defense issue is brought to a vote at a CSTO meeting, you guessed it right: Armenia stands no chance to get any support against Azerbaijan’s or even Turkey’s crimes of aggression. Armenians would be outvoted by those members of Turkic origin. As far as Armenia is concerend, CSTO is toothless, a laughable union when it comes to protect against Azerbaijan’s invasion into Armenia’s sovereign territories.
At this juncture, one would ask about the lesson to learn from the parable of the dual Goliaths and David.
Although the story of David and the Goliath is a parable to teach us a moral lesson, I shall use its virtually synonymous word allegory, which can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a political one.
What is the lesson of the allegory? David was a young Sheppard-boy who was courageous and intelligent enough to know his limitation against the giant enemy. He could not win the duel had it been a hand to hand combat. He had a superior weapon to use from a distant without getting entangled in the muscular arms of the Goliath by wrestling him. Goliath had superior power, a sharp spear, but David used his sling like an attack drone and hit the Goliath in the middle of his forehead and killed the giant from a distance. Political lesson to learn: if you have the right weapon, regardless of the size of your adversary, you win.
Some may say, going against the “dual giants,” such as the “Shushi Treaty” members and the signatories of the Organization of Turkic States, is a losing proposition. Not really, provided the Armenian David equips its “sling” with attack drones and anti-drone devices.
Can Armenia face these two giants? Only and only if they follow the foot prints of the Jews and become the Israel of the South Caucasus to produce their own modern weapons. The Turkic threat to Armenia is real. We shall never forget what President Erdogan said at the victory parade in Baku on December 10, 2020: “We are here to complete what our ancestors began,” referring to the finishing of the brutality of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923.
It is like this: Armenia excels in Cognac production and Israel produces attack drones. Armenia can sell one bottle of cognac for $15 wholesale and Israel can sell a drone for $2million easily. Israel can buy more bottles of cognac than Armenia selling hundred thousand bottles. Moreover, Israel uses the drone for self protection, while cognac is mainly for export for peaceful enjoyment consumption. Armenia’s weak position will not change, unless it starts producing UAVs as well for national security and export.
Nowadays, robots do the fighting regardless how big the army of your adversary may be; if you have the right weapon, you win the war. If Armenia achieves aerial superiority in terms of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), then it becomes a real plucky David.
Presently, Artsakh is in a sea of troubles. How to navigate a safe and secure course toward survival? Let Armenia invest in its vast Diaspora, which is a store house of many years of knowledge and experience in many various ways of life in industrialized nations. Besides, the Diaspora is Armenia too and its distant patriotism is as real as Apricot is Armenian no matter where the tree grows. Let us not allow the 44-Day War defeat undermine our confidence for Armenia’s war is for survival against the genocidal adversaries.