Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 25
By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:
A protest rally was held in Germany’s Cologne with the support of Azerbaijan’s State Committee for Work with the Diaspora and on the initiative of the German-Azerbaijani Cultural Center, Trend reports with reference to the State Committee Jan. 25.
Being one of the leading countries of Europe, Germany approaches sensitively to human rights and freedom issues, and the country is respectful of international norms and principles. Besides, taking into consideration its big influence to OSCE, it was decided to stage the rally.
The rally was held under the slogans "Azerbaijan wants peace and justice!", "Europe, don't turn blind eye to the murder of children", "Stop the killings of the peaceful civilians!", "End the aggression of Armenia!", "Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan!", "We want peace", "Freedom for Dilgam and Shahbaz!"
The Azerbaijanis who delivered speech at the rally told about the Armenian vandalism and gave concrete facts that Nagorno-Karabakh is the historical land of Azerbaijan.
As part of the rally, the German public and tourists were informed that as a result of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, more than one million people were expelled from their homes. The German public and tourists were also informed that Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev were taken hostage during their visit to homeland and graves of relatives, about cruel tortures against them, etc.
Also, as part of the rally, thousands of flyers depicting the history of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh, the UN Security Council resolutions on the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and the ethnic composition of Azerbaijan’s population were distributed to representatives of German society and tourists.
At the end of the rally, it was decided to send an appeal to the German government. The appeal was supported by the participants of the rally, and it was noted that in the shortest time the appeal will be handed over to the German authorities.
During an operation in July 2014 in Shaplar village of Azerbaijani Kalbajar district occupied by Armenia, the Armenian special forces killed an Azerbaijani, Hasan Hasanov, and took hostage two other Azerbaijanis, Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov. A "criminal case" was initiated against them. Afterwards, a "court" sentenced Asgarov to life imprisonment and Guliyev to 22 years in prison.
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.