Baku, Azerbaijan, April 21
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva - Trend:
The U.S. administration should defy the Armenian lobby and support justice for Azerbaijan -- a true ally of America in the region, American Thinker, daily internet publication, wrote.
While speaking about an Armenian occupation of Azerbaijan's territory, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Raoul Lowery Contreras, author of the article, said that the territory has been and is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
"Nagorno-Karabakh has never been independent or part of Armenia," the article said.
"In the middle of the cease-fire was Russia, not the United States," the author wrote. "The lack of the US meaningful diplomacy in this instance is shocking."
"Why didn't the president of the United States intercede in this larger-than-a-firefight episode where it is said hundreds of soldiers and civilians died?" the author wrote.
The author wrote that while this may be news to the president, Azerbaijan has been a partner of the United States in fighting terrorism since 2002.
"On top of that, Azerbaijani soldiers have served in Afghanistan as allies and are there today, in April 2016," the article said. "Azerbaijan has also been crucial in providing energy security to the U.S. as well as its allies in Europe and Israel."
"It is one of Washington's absurdities that the U.S. Congress passed a law (Section 907 to the Freedom Support Act) in 1992, rewarding Armenia for an illegal invasion and punishing Azerbaijan for defending itself," the author wrote.
"The law was adopted at the behest of the well-financed Armenian lobby," the article said. "This ludicrous American law was never overridden despite United Nations Security Council resolutions demanding Armenian forces withdraw from Azerbaijani territory."
The author wrote that Armenia was found guilty of an illegal invasion and illegal occupation of Azerbaijani territory by the European Court of Human Rights in June, 2015.
"The fighting over the first April weekend would never have happened if Armenia had followed multiple United Nations resolutions to leave the territory of Azerbaijan it has illegally occupied for 22 years," the article said.
On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers. The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani population. Azerbaijan responded with a counter-attack, which led to liberation of several strategic heights and settlements.
Military operations were stopped on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on Apr. 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry earlier said. Ignoring the agreement, the Armenian side again started violating the ceasefire.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.