German literary scholars predicted Azerbaijan's aggression a year in advance

PanARMENIAN.Net - A group of German literary scholars led by Jürgen Wertheimer, a professor of comparative literature were able to predict Azerbaijan's incoming aggression against the Armenian population of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) as early as late 2019 – one year before the start of the devastating war.

Three years ago, the small group of academics at a German university launched an unprecedented collaboration with the country's military – using novels to try to pinpoint the world’s next conflicts, The Guardian says in an extensive article.

The name of the initiative was Project Cassandra: beginning in 2018, for two years, university researchers would use their expertise to help the German defense ministry predict the future.

In one of his last reports to the defense ministry, towards the end of 2019, Wertheimer had drawn attention to an interesting development in the Caucasus. The culture ministry of Azerbaijan had recently supplied libraries in Georgia with books carrying explicit anti-Armenian messages, such as the works of poet Khalil Rza Uluturk. There were signs, he warned, that Azerbaijan was ramping up propaganda efforts in the brewing territorial conflict with Armenia, its neighbor.

War broke out a year later: thousands of soldiers and civilians died in a six-week battle over Nagorno-Karabakh.

"Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used the war to bolster his strongman image, hailing Armenia’s defeat in December as a “glorious victory”. Russia, traditionally allied with Armenia, successfully leveraged the conflict to consolidate its influence in the region. Germany and the EU, meanwhile, looked on and stayed silent: being able to predict the future is one thing, knowing what to do with the information is another," The Guardian added.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Russian and Azerbaijani Presidents Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev on November 9 signed a statement to end the war in Karabakh after almost 45 days. Under the deal, the Armenian side has returned all the seven regions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, having lost a part of Karabakh itself in hostilities.