It is impossible to present the war crimes in total committed by Armenians against the Azerbaijani people in the last 34 years through short videos. The footage you see is a small part of those criminal acts. The purpose of the current event is not to mechanically sort out the calendar of aggression, but rather to demonstrate the bloody pages of our history to those who rise up to legal and political judgment of our country abroad, as well as to the one to promote humanism to the enemy at home.
Instead of celebrating our brilliant Victory and the dates of September 27-November 10 of the last two years as a new calendar of salvation for our people, unfortunately, we have come to you with the scenes of the occupation period. We must respond to those who bring us to the world's agenda, without forgetting for a moment the task of transferring the Victory calendar - the history-turning chronicle that determines the future of Azerbaijan for the next hundred years, to our future generations and to political-ideological programs. Yes, the goal of the enemy is to attack the sanctity of that September, to remove the event of Victory from the national agenda, to direct and blow off the constructive energy of Azerbaijan into external arenas.
The agitation around the scenes displaying the execution of the Armenian soldiers and a created mass circulation of the situation since October 2, firstly they aim to strike at our Victory. While in parallel with the transition of our military victory to the political-diplomatic table of dialogue, the negotiations in Prague raise hopes for signing of a great peace treaty, however, the organized activity of the global forces intending to maintain a discord between Azerbaijan and Armenia has increased. As the peace treaty draws closer, the face of the real enemies becomes clear, and those who have profited from the centuries-old conflict come out into the open.
The representatives of the authorities will talk here about the war crimes of Armenia conducted during the last 34 years. However, one fact is undeniable: Azerbaijan run the 2nd Karabakh War in entireaccordance with international law and fundamental principles law. In his address to the nation on Victory Day on November 8, 2021, the head of state of Azerbaijan said: “We did not violate the international humanitarian law and the rules of war. We fought a just war and defeated the enemy on the battlefield”. On the 3rd day of the war, the enemy tried to accuse our state of causing an existentialist threat – ending the existence of Armenians, but then they realized that tens of thousands of civilians had to be destroyed in order to justify their claims. Instead, the 44-day holy war became a true Nuremberg trial. The face of the International Court of Justice and the UN was saved by the Azerbaijani army. During the hard days of our nation, in 1995 the national leader Haydar Aliyev declared that we should not have kept our heads down because of the genocide and the atrocities against our people, and to believe in our future victory!
Undoubtedly, Armenia has committed all kinds of crimes against our people that are considered war crimes according to the Geneva Convention of 1949. However, as you see on the screen, the deportations of Azerbaijanis from Goycha and Zangezur, the missile attacks by Armenians targeting the Azerbaijani lands from Khojaly to Ganja, Barda, and the recently found Edilli mass grave - none of these crimes have been paid a legal value in the Hague. After November 10, the world saw that the "historical nation" planted a million landmines on the territories of Azerbaijan invaded by Armenia during the last 30 years, but they also paid off with a military defeat. There has been no reaction yet from the Human Rights Watch against planting landmines in civilian areas as well as on roads or against pedestrians. Moreover, not joining the Rome Statute and not entering the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court does not exempt states from a responsibility. Therefore, those who tookMilosevic to court could have established the same tribunal for Kocharyan and Sargsyan.
Not a single Khojaly murderer has been trialed in the national courts of Armenia. The authorities and judges who tried to do this would be lynched by the world Armenians. On the contrary, most of their military heroes of the last 30 years are criminals against our nation. In his speech on August 16, 2021, Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev addressed the Armenian political and military leaders and stressed out: "Remove those of your medals, throw them away as you have already been defeated". Now, those committers have earned the hatred not only from our people, but also from ordinary Armenians. Only once after the Hague tribunal started a legal process against the war criminals / those Armenian “heroes”, then the West could be a fair judge in the Russia-Ukraine war.
On October 2, Armenia launched a global campaign against our country on the basis of an officially unconfirmed video, and the geography of counter-propaganda was very wide. The Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the USA, India, France, Canada, Norway, Greece, Lithuania, Ireland, French Minister Frank Rister, the National Interest magazine, about 45 American congressmen, members of the Spanish Parliament Anton Reyno and John Iñárriti, the British Ambassador to Armenia, the American Senator Alex Padilla, the Genocide Prevention Network, and the petition started on the global change.org platform demanding the resignation of Ursula von der Leyen, European MPs Viola Taubadel, Tom Vanderisxe, Emmanuel Morel, the German Ombudsman, the OSCE ODIHR, members of the Government calling the Azerbaijani ambassador to the Dutch MFA in Hague, the Spanish Congress, the British journalist Emil Hesse, the Bellingcat intelligence platform, Canadian Senator Leo Cousakos, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a 17-person hearing in the European Parliament and the Norwegian Ambassador to Armenia Helen Andersen are participating in the campaign to blame our country.
The objectives of these actions can be summarized as follows:
• Armenia wants a large financial aid and the myth of "Azerbaijani threat" is its invaluable foreign policy tool.
• This country is pursuing a policy of covering up its own crimes committed during the last 34 years, evading justice and forgetting its past deeds by unconfirmed video which shows the killing of several soldiers.
• This country wants to provide international security and various legal preferences to Karabakh.
• Presenting Armenia as an island of democracy, this state claims the attack of Azerbaijan in cooperation with Russia, on a country that shares Western values, and portrays itself as a party in need of Himars missiles and weapon aid in the image of Ukraine.
• The state strives to deprive our country from financial resources and our army from modern weapons by using economic and political sanctions. Therefore, the questions asked to Joseph Borrell were in the form of "What matters more for EU, Azeri gas or Armenian blood?". Apparently, global campaigners agreed to freeze the Europeans in winter, only to deprive Azerbaijan from economic income.
• In particular, they aim to create a negative background around the newly formed Commando forces and prevent the creation of the 2nd Special Forces.
• Armenia wants to divert us from the spirit and course of the "Great Return" of IDPs, and spend our energy and resources on foreign programs and forces for the next 30 years.
• This state attempts to downplay the scale of our Victory, undermine the relationship of the Supreme Commander, the symbol of our Victory, with powerful state leaders, etc.
This list can be extended even further. Let's not forget that last year hearings of Armenia against Azerbaijan at the UN on the charge of "spreading ethnic hatred" came up. That's why we need to keep hard and soft power together.
Armenians have replaced the heavy defeat on the military field with superiority in the information space, and are trying to transfer it to the armed position in the future. The possibility of increasing pressure on us in the future requires our state to establish a Center for Combating Hybrid Attacks. The international legitimacy of the results of the 44-day holy war depends extremely on our credible state status and our policy against war crimes. So, what must be done is:
• First of all, it is important to found the War Crimes Punishment Commission realising the mandate covering the first and second Karabakh wars. In this case, the war crimes of the last 34 years can be combined in a single platform and policy.
• Second, spreading the truth about Azerbaijan requires the mobilization of those who understand the realities of European security and empathize with our country. Look, a smear campaign is being conducted against the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and we are quietly watching. However, her protection is well important for our economic and political interests.
• Thirdly, the amount of American aid to Ukraine is some 26 billion dollars, and 500 billion has been promised to save its economy. We welcome it, however an active campaign of world Azerbaijanis to organize international donor conferences and funds with the support of those countries to build a village in Zangilan is necessary too.
• Fourthly, by speeding up the assessment of the material damages caused to the former displaced persons, the action of one million Azerbaijanis calling Armenia to "Pay compensation for my house" will have serious legal and political consequences.
• The fifth, if the enemy cannot afford to pay reparations for 34 years of war crimes, there are relevant examples around the world of demanding compensation through land and other alternative means. The Zangezur Corridor should be opened in full access for Azerbaijan in exchange for the war crimes committed against our people, as a compensation for civil and economic damages!
Dear friends, at the end, let's emphasize that we established the "Court of the Century" for the Armenian soldiers, or rather defeated officers and soldiers, in the capital Baku, and the fact is that regardless of the results, they will live with a sentence, yet the biggest duty is to punish the political and military generals who ordered those soldiers. Of course, we want to end the hostilities, however, the page we are turning should truly serve the peace. Therefore, the head of state of Azerbaijan expresses our new national idea in Bulgaria, Aghdam, or Prague with the same harmony: we will live forever in our native land! Yes, in order for our people not to experience massacres and tragedies again, especially on the holy days of the Victory, but in order to "Continue to Victory", the head of state of Azerbaijan, leaning on the “Soul Stone” of our first martyr on September 27, the Day of Return and Battle, indicated the strategic goals, called out "Let's take an oath that we will protect our independence forever" and made it the future motto of nation and state building. Let's take an oath, as the Motherland and the state begin with an oath!
Zahid Oruj is Chairman of the Board of the Social Research Center and a member of Azerbaijani Parliament.
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