BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct.6
Trend:
Feeling of impunity as a result of the international community’s inaction, pushed the Armenian leadership for the recent military 'adventure', Deputy of the Latvian Parliament, Member of the Latvian Delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Roman Naudins told Trend, commenting on the recent military provocations of Armenia against Azerbaijan.
"I’m very concerned about the hostilities that began in Azerbaijan, friendly to Latvia. It’s already several days that the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, in response to another military escapade of Armenian leadership, have been conducting a counter-offensive operation on their sovereign territory,” Naudins said. “The forces are conducting the operation in order to restore sovereignty and internationally recognized territorial integrity and liberate the Azerbaijani territory, which was occupied about 30 years ago, thereby exercising Azerbaijan’s right to individual self-defense provided for in Article 51 of the UN Charter and clearing its territory from illegal foreign military presence."
The MP reminded that in the early 1990s, Armenian armed formations occupied the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding administrative districts of independent Azerbaijan (altogether accounting for 20 percent of the country's territory), which are territorially larger than Nagorno Karabakh itself.
"From these districts, due to the policy of ethnic cleansing by the Armenian armed formations, almost a million of Azerbaijanis were expelled and subsequently had to live in tent cities for many years. In addition, in February 1992, a real bloody genocide was committed in the small town of Khojaly on the territory of Nagorno Karabakh, where more than 600 peaceful Azerbaijanis (including women, old people and children) were barbarously killed on ethnic grounds in one day,” he pointed out.
“According to international law, people who became refugees and internally displaced persons have the right to return to their homes, get back their property, and visit the graves of their relatives. Negotiations with Armenia on the return of these territories to Azerbaijan have been conducted since the early 1990s through the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group specially created for this purpose, co-chaired by the United States, France and Russia.”
He stressed that in 1993 four UN Security Council resolutions were adopted, calling for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying Armenian armed formations from all the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
"To this day, the negotiations have remained to be unsuccessful due to the destructive position of Armenia, grossly violating the norms of international law and ignoring the UN Security Council resolutions,” the MP said. “To some extent, the international community must also take responsibility for the deterioration of the situation between the two countries. The European Union has also been very passive in defending the sovereignty and internationally recognized territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Its actions were insufficient and ineffective.”
“I believe sanctions should be applied to the representatives of Armenian leadership as long as it pursues a policy of illegal occupation of foreign lands,” he said.
According to the MP, for their part, the politicians of the European Union should be decisive and, first of all, put forward the territorial integrity of sovereign states as a priority.
"The war between Azerbaijan and Armenia can be stopped tomorrow. For this, Armenia must withdraw its occupation troops from the occupied territory and return to the process of negotiations with Azerbaijan," he added.
Armenian Armed Forces launched a large-scale military attack on positions of 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 liberated a number of territories previously occupied by Armenia, as well as take important, strategic heights under control.
The fighting continued into October 2020, in the early days of which Armenia has launched missile attacks on Azerbaijani cities of Ganja, Mingachevir, Khizi as well as Absheron district.
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.