Carnival of Soul

Amid an ongoing violent dispute with rival neighbour Armenia, the military of Azerbaijan has released a bizarre death metal music video to tout the might of its weapons and military prowess.

The song, titled ‘Atəs’, meaning ‘Fire’ in Azerbaijani, features musicians armed with guitars standing in front of armoured tanks while being dressed in military fatigues.

The song was met with sarcastic reactions on social media with many calling it Azerbaijani propaganda.

Incidentally, actual heavy metal rockers, the Armenian band System of A Down, recently slammed Azerbaijan for its violation of human rights.

“…the war being waged on the people of Artsakh (by Azerbaijan) now is a continuation of the Armenian Genocide as the Turkic Azeris along with the support of Recep Erdogan’s Turkey are trying to eradicate the Armenians of Artsakh and claim these lands for themselves,” they wrote in a collective statement while denouncing the country.

The video was released by the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the State Border Service amid ongoing clashes with Armenia. On Monday, Armenia accusing Azerbaijan of firing missiles in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, a highly disputed region between the two countries. Azerbaijan, on the other hand, accused Armenia of attacking several of its cities including Ganja. Incidentally, the video was shared on YouTube on September 27.

The first clashes between the two nations occurred on September 27 after 30 years of relative peace between the contentious nations. This was after Armenia declared Martial Law and began large-scale military mobilisation. Azerbaijan is aided by Turkey, which had been an aide even during the Armenian Genocide.

Following Monday’s exacerbations, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the actions of Turkey and Azerbaijan amounted to a “terroristic attack” over Nagorno-Karabakh that formed part of the continuation of the Armenian genocide.

“What we are facing is an Azeri-Turkish international terroristic attack,” Pashinyan told Sky News. “To me there is no doubt that this is a policy of continuing the Armenian genocide and a policy of reinstating the Turkish empire.”

The Armenian genocide refers to the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923.

Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War One, but contests the figures and denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute a genocide.

The clashes have so far resulted in nearly 250 deaths, despite both countries pointing fingers at each other for violating the ceasefire.

(With inputs from Reuters)