[PJ] Although the recent conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has been presented as a "territorial dispute," something else—namely religious animosity, or that old Islamic hate for infidels—has permeated it.For example, several reports and testimonials, including by an independent French journalist, confirmed that Turkey was funneling jihadi/terrorist groups that had been operating in Syria and Libya—including the pro-Muslim Brotherhood Hamza Division, which kept naked, sex slave women in prison—into Azerbaijan to terrorize the Armenians.
Similarly, Armenian churches that have come under Azerbaijani control have been desecrated—despite promises from the authorities to protect them. In one instance, a soldier—unclear whether an Azeri or a jihadi mercenary from Syria or Iraq—was videotaped standing atop a church chapel, where the cross had been broken off, and triumphantly shouting "Allahu Akbar!" Azerbaijani forces also shelled and destroyed Holy Savior, an iconic Armenian cathedral which was "consecrated in 1888 but was damaged during the March 1920 massacre of Armenians of the city by Azerbaijanis and experienced a decades-long decline."
Anti-infidel rhetoric and logic also motivated the mercenaries. A captured terrorist confessed that he was "promised a monthly 2000 dollar payment for fighting against ’kafirs’ in Artsakh, and an extra 100 dollar for each beheaded ’kafir.'" (Kafir, often translated as "infidel," is Arabic for non-Muslims who fail to submit to Islamic authority, which by default makes them enemies worthy of death or slavery.)
Indeed, one need only listen to a Turkish man rant in a video about how Armenians are all "dogs" and that any found in Turkey should be slaughtered for an idea of the Islamic impetus fueling the hate: