BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 12
Trend:
Consul General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles Nasimi Aghayev issued a response article to the recently published false and biased article about Azerbaijan by the US congressmen with pro-Armenian position Adam Schiff and Jackie Speier, Trend reports citing the Consulate General on Feb. 12.
In an article entitled "Members of Congress Should Promote Azerbaijan-Armenia Peace, not Conflict" published on the US Medium website, Aghayev gave extensive information about Armenia's policy of annexation, occupation, and ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijan, as well as the Khojaly genocide.
Following repeated provocations and warmongering against Azerbaijan, such as the illegal settlements of ethnic Armenians from the Middle East in the stolen houses, villages, and towns of displaced Azerbaijanis; the July 2020 border attacks; and official statements threatening Azerbaijan with “a new war for new territories” or claiming “Karabakh is Armenia,” which destroyed the peace process, Armenia suddenly attacked Azerbaijan on September 27, 2020. The ensuing 44-day war ended on November 9 with the liberation of Azerbaijan’s occupied territories and restoration of its sovereign international borders, in line with international law and UN Security Council resolutions.
During the war, losing on the battlefield, Armenia resorted to vicious attacks against Azerbaijani civilians. The murder of 100 Azerbaijani civilians, including 12 little children, and wounding of over 400 by targeted Armenian missile attacks on major Azerbaijani cities outside of the war zone, using even widely banned cluster munitions, is well documented, including by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
Also, Armenia’s involvement of terrorists from the Middle East as well as islamophobic rightwing radicals from Europe in its military operations is incontrovertible facts.
In addition to calling out the gross misrepresentation of facts in the article, it is also crucial to ask, where was the outcry by these esteemed Congressmembers, when the invasion and ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijan’s territories began, or when the Khojaly Massacre was committed? Where have their voices been throughout the past 30 years of violent, illegal occupation, unilaterally perpetrated by Armenia? Where was their condemnation when documentation revealed that Armenia was conducting the erasure of Azerbaijani cultural heritage, desecrating and destroying 63 of the 67 historic Azerbaijani mosques in Karabakh, many turned into cow and pig sheds?
Azerbaijan and the US share over 30 years of deep and strategic partnership in areas ranging from energy security to the fight against international terrorism to building a world of harmonious coexistence for people of every faith and culture.
The US foreign policy has always been at its best, especially in the South Caucasus, when it did not allow domestic special interest groups, who are driven by ethnocentric agendas detrimental to US national interests, to influence its decision-making. The same is true now. The Armenian lobby, the radical maximalist nationalism of which rejected the compromise-based resolution of the conflict and pushed Armenia to war, should not be permitted to have any say in US foreign policy.
Now there are new realities on the ground. Azerbaijan and Armenia are working together on unblocking transport links, which will be essential to sustainable peace.
In that vein, Congresspersons Speier and Schiff should help strengthen the achieved peace, and not perpetuate the conflict.
The article can be found here https://link.medium.com/KdQeX828Ndb