BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept.28
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Underestimation by the international community of the significance of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue can lead to the most dangerous consequences for Armenia, the Armenian geopolitical space may disappear from the political map of the world, Guram Markhulia, President of the "Caucasus International Center for the Study of Geohistory and Geopolitics" told Trend.
"For several decades, Azerbaijan has warned Armenia and the world community to return their lands, but apparently the world community and Yerevan doubted this. We see that all the resolutions of the UN General Assembly are being implemented within a few weeks or months, but four resolutions on the liberation of the occupied Azerbaijani lands have remained on paper for more than 30 years. The patience of the Azerbaijani people, where more than one million people are refugees, has come to an end," Markhulia said.
The expert is sure that the world community will be on the side of Azerbaijan.
According to him, Shusha, like the whole of Karabakh, is the territory of Azerbaijan, from which the indigenous Azerbaijani population was barbarously expelled.
"As a historian, I know that as a result of the occupation by the Armenians, the city of Shusha and 30 villages of the Shusha region was destroyed, 195 civilians were killed, 165 were injured and 58 people were missing. More than 24,000 residents of Shusha were subjected to ethnic cleansing," the expert emphasized.
Markhulia also noted that the consequences of the current clashes for Armenia itself will be extremely deplorable. All international organizations are on the side of Azerbaijan because truth and justice should prevail.
The expert also added that Georgia fully supports the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
On the issue of trilateral relations, the expert emphasized another important strategic partner - Turkey.
"I intend to appeal to the Georgian authorities and call on Tbilisi to prevent the participation of Georgian citizens of Armenian nationality in the battles against Azerbaijan in the occupied territories," he said.
Meanwhile, Armenian armed forces launched a large-scale military attack on positions of the Azerbaijani army on the front line, using large-caliber weapons, mortars, and artillery on Sept. 27.
Azerbaijan responded with a counter-offensive along the entire front. As a result of retaliation, Azerbaijani troops managed to liberate the territories previously occupied by Armenia: Garakhanbeyli, Garvend, Kend Horadiz, Yukhari Abdulrahmanli villages (Fuzuli district), Boyuk Marjanli, and Nuzgar villages (Jabrayil district).
Moreover, the positions of the Armenian armed forces were destroyed in the direction of Azerbaijan's Agdere district and Murovdag, important heights were taken under control.
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, 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 the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
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