BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 10. The Western Azerbaijan issue is not only a historical matter but also a highly relevant topic through the lens of international law, human rights, and justice. This issue remains a problem that has left an indelible mark on the historical memory of the Azerbaijani people.
Currently, over 120 million people worldwide are facing the issue of forced displacement due to wars, armed conflicts, and other causes. The majority of these people have been forced to leave their homeland and live in difficult conditions. The protection of the rights of displaced persons, ensuring their safety, and providing decent living conditions should be one of the priority issues for the international community. However, addressing this problem effectively requires more than just the efforts of individual countries; large-scale international cooperation and the development of joint strategies are essential. Coordinated actions between the United Nations (UN), international organizations supporting refugees, donor countries, and non-governmental organizations could play a crucial role in this regard. The reintegration of displaced persons, as well as the resolution of their social and economic issues, is one of the key steps toward achieving both global solidarity and sustainable development goals.
As President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stated in his address to the participants of the second international conference of the Western Azerbaijan Community on "The Right to Return: Advancing Justice for Azerbaijanis Expelled from Armenia" held in Baku, the Azerbaijani people, too, have endured the problem of displacement since the beginning of the last century: "The Azerbaijanis living in Western Azerbaijan, within the territory of present-day Armenia, were subjected to ethnic cleansing and forcibly expelled from their historical homeland in stages. In the aftermath of particularly horrific deportations in 1918–1921, 1948–1953, and 1987–1991, hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were driven from their ancestral homeland and sought refuge in Azerbaijan. As a result of those atrocious deportations, not a single Azerbaijani remained in Armenia, which became a mono-ethnic state".
Armenia is doing everything in its power to deny that the Azerbaijani people have lived and created a rich cultural heritage in their ancestral lands for centuries. This is not only a distortion of historical facts but also a clear disrespect for international law and conventions on the protection of cultural heritage. Armenia's destruction of cultural and historical monuments, cemeteries, mosques, and historical settlements created by the Azerbaijani people in Western Azerbaijan over millennia not only resulted in their physical destruction but was also accompanied by attempts to falsify and appropriate this heritage. A particularly striking example of this policy of vandalism is the significant damage caused to Azerbaijani Ashiq art [combining poetry, storytelling, dance, and vocal and instrumental music into traditional performance art], recognized by UNESCO. Armenia sought to destroy the material and spiritual heritage of this art or distort its origins. This is an attack not only on Azerbaijan's cultural heritage but also on universal culture. At the same time, hundreds of mosques located in Western Azerbaijan were either completely destroyed or efforts were made to present them as 'Armenian' heritage.
This policy of ethnic cleansing, which led to the expulsion of the Azerbaijani people from their ancestral lands, is a crime aimed at destroying the cultural and historical ties that have developed over millennia. However, the cultural heritage created on these lands, despite its destruction, lives in the national memory of the Azerbaijani people and will one day be restored with its historical realities.
These aggressive actions by Armenia must be condemned by the international community, and concrete steps must be taken to preserve this cultural heritage. The issue of Western Azerbaijan has not received the proper attention from the international community. International organizations such as the UN, OSCE, and the Council of Europe have not made efforts to hold Armenia accountable. Western countries often have not focused on this issue due to political interests.
Azerbaijan continuously works to advance this issue on the international stage. The Western Azerbaijan Community, playing an active role in this direction, brings historical facts to the international community. The demands for return and the steps taken in this direction aim to ensure a fair solution to the problem.
The Western Azerbaijan Community has repeatedly called on the Armenian government for sincere dialogue, proposing specific steps for the restoration of historical justice and establishing mutual understanding in the region. However, the Armenian government has consistently ignored these calls and maintained its position of not initiating dialogue. Armenia must begin negotiations with the Western Azerbaijan Community, fulfill its international obligations, and take concrete measures to restore the right of Western Azerbaijanis to return to their ancestral lands. This is important for ensuring not only historical justice but also lasting peace in the region.
The right of Western Azerbaijanis to return is one of the fundamental human rights. The international community must take concrete steps to restore justice and address this issue through legal means.
Azer Garayev, political analyst
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