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It's Time to Expose Azerbaijani Transgressions
Friday, March 1st, 2013
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev
BY HRANT APOVIAN
`If a single candle were lighted
for every murdered Armenian,
the light from these candles would be
brighter than that of the moon.'
Akram Aylisli
When the world starts to expose and vilify the State of Azerbaijan as
a country rife with human rights abuses, as a promoter of massacres in
its country, as an aggressor, and a warmonger, a state that imprisons
opposition members and journalists, then one can finally believe that
decency in foreign policy takes a front seat to considerations for
Azeri oil.
The latest chapter involving human rights abuses and creating popular
turmoil in Azerbaijan involves an Azeri writer who was stripped of his
honorary title as `the Peoples Writer' awarded in 1998. He is being
harassed and vilified for writing a book where he reveals Azeri
massacres of Armenians. He had the courage to write that `This nation
- Armenia - was tired and exhausted from the violence but they never
stopped building their churches, writing their books and raising arms
to heaven appealing to their God.'
Transgressions by Azerbaijan date back to and started when Stalin
awarded Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh, an Armenian enclave for
centuries. During the years of occupation the people of Nagorno
Karabakh were subjected to abuses, massacres, and a policy of
extermination and depopulation to rid the enclave of its ethnic
population.
This policy culminated in a series of Armenian massacres within
Azerbaijan, notably in Sumgait, when the people of Nagorno Karabakh
opted for independence during the fall of the Soviet Union.
The massacres in Sumgait and other cities in Azerbaijan, which the
world chose to ignore were followed by a protracted war against the
people of Nagorno Karabakh and which was started by a fierce aerial
bombardment of population centers.
Four years later, after mass destruction and the infliction of 30,000
lives lost, Azerbaijan lost the war that it started. The OSCE
(Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe) Minsk Group
comprised of the USA, Russia, and France is trying to seek a peaceful
resolution of the conflict based on the right of self determination of
the people of Nagorno Karabakh. Azerbaijan is actively sabotaging and
blocking any peaceful resolution, becoming more and more intransigent
during the negotiations.
This is evidently a ploy by Azerbaijan to buy time, in the mistaken
belief that with time, it will gain legitimacy in the quest to
reconquer Nagorno Karabakh.
This is based on an Azerbaijani government sanctioned grand design to:
First: Rearm, spending a large portion of its oil revenue building a
better military machine. Azerbaijan is buying billions worth of
armaments from Russia, The USA, Belarus, Ukraine, Turkey, and Israel,
outspending Armenia five to one.
Second: Instilling hatred towards Armenians worldwide in its people.
Extraditing Sapharov, an Azeri officer who had murdered an Armenian
officer in cold blood during a NATO (North Atlantic Treaty
Organization) training event, and welcoming him as a national hero.
Third: Mounting a massive diplomatic campaign against Armenia,
accusing it of occupying Azeri lands, massacring Azeris in Khochalu,
where its inhabitants were granted safe passage out by Armenian forces
before attacking it. Azerbaijani propaganda is depicting the conflict
as a Muslim - Christian strife. This resulted last month, in an
anti-Armenian declaration by the Islamic Conference in Cairo, Egypt.
Fourth: Constantly violating the cease fire agreement across the
Azerbaijan - Nagorno Karabakh front, as well as the Azerbaijan -
Armenia front and refusing to remove snipers and initiating border
incursions that have so far killed many Armenian defense soldiers and
civilians.
Fifth: Targeting the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh as well as the
Armenian Diaspora worldwide, by vilifying our nation as the aggressor
and occupier with a systematic misinformation campaign. This includes
promoting anti Armenian sentiments and presenting the conflict as an
infringement on Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. An anti-Armenian
White House petition was linked to the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, a
project headed by Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliev's multibillionaire
wife, Mehriban Aliyeva.
Sixth: Conditioning a thaw in Armenia - Turkey relations and lifting
of an embargo on Armenia by Turkey on a favorable resolution for
Azerbaijan on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. This is one major reason
Turkey reneged on its commitment on the ill fated Armenia - Turkey
Protocol agreement.
Seventh: Threatening to down civilian passenger aircraft if the
airport in Nagorno Karabakh is put into operation, to forcibly halt
planned commercial flights to Nagorno Karabakh.
Eighth: Trying to organize the Azeri Diaspora and spending millions
with public relation firms to legitimize and propagate an official
misinformation campaign worldwide orchestrated and funded by the
government of Azerbaijan.
Unfortunately, the threat of war is having an effect on the civilian
population of Nagorno Karabakh, which is trying to rebuild a war
ravaged country and has established a viable democratic government.
Belligerent declarations threatening war by both Azeri civilian and
military officials are constant. However, the West is reluctant to
chastise the government of Azerbaijan, and is exercising a policy of
appeasement. This emboldens the Azeri government to be more
intransigent and to test the will and physical resilience of Nagorno
Karabakh defense forces.
Furthermore, the world does not realize and the governing clique in
Azerbaijan cannot conceive, that this is a very dangerous course that
it is following. If Azeri forces were to attack, the push-back by
Nagorno Karabakh and Armenian forces would result in enormous loss of
life, destruction of the oil industry, turmoil in the Caucasus, and
can conceivably result in more territorial losses for Azerbaijan.
Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh have to take Azeri threats very
seriously. To rely on the West to restrain Azerbaijan is futile. If
Azerbaijan continues in its present course of action, blocking a
peaceful resolution of the conflict by grossly miscalculating the
success of the military option, Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh should
seriously consider pulling out of the negotiations and more actively
pursue the recognition of Nagorno Karabakh as an independent nation.
After all, time may be on the side of Azerbaijan. Its massive military
buildup is becoming seriously ominous to a dangerous extent. The
millions spent on its propaganda machine are beginning to have an
effect, by distorting historical precedent. This should remind us that
the West will not always side with the righteous and can at any time
abandon the people of Nagorno Karabakh to their fate.
- See more at: http://asbarez.com/108587/it%E2%80%99s-time-to-expose-azerbaijani-transgressions/#sthash.aLJzv9ML.dpuf
Friday, March 1st, 2013
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev
BY HRANT APOVIAN
`If a single candle were lighted
for every murdered Armenian,
the light from these candles would be
brighter than that of the moon.'
Akram Aylisli
When the world starts to expose and vilify the State of Azerbaijan as
a country rife with human rights abuses, as a promoter of massacres in
its country, as an aggressor, and a warmonger, a state that imprisons
opposition members and journalists, then one can finally believe that
decency in foreign policy takes a front seat to considerations for
Azeri oil.
The latest chapter involving human rights abuses and creating popular
turmoil in Azerbaijan involves an Azeri writer who was stripped of his
honorary title as `the Peoples Writer' awarded in 1998. He is being
harassed and vilified for writing a book where he reveals Azeri
massacres of Armenians. He had the courage to write that `This nation
- Armenia - was tired and exhausted from the violence but they never
stopped building their churches, writing their books and raising arms
to heaven appealing to their God.'
Transgressions by Azerbaijan date back to and started when Stalin
awarded Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh, an Armenian enclave for
centuries. During the years of occupation the people of Nagorno
Karabakh were subjected to abuses, massacres, and a policy of
extermination and depopulation to rid the enclave of its ethnic
population.
This policy culminated in a series of Armenian massacres within
Azerbaijan, notably in Sumgait, when the people of Nagorno Karabakh
opted for independence during the fall of the Soviet Union.
The massacres in Sumgait and other cities in Azerbaijan, which the
world chose to ignore were followed by a protracted war against the
people of Nagorno Karabakh and which was started by a fierce aerial
bombardment of population centers.
Four years later, after mass destruction and the infliction of 30,000
lives lost, Azerbaijan lost the war that it started. The OSCE
(Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe) Minsk Group
comprised of the USA, Russia, and France is trying to seek a peaceful
resolution of the conflict based on the right of self determination of
the people of Nagorno Karabakh. Azerbaijan is actively sabotaging and
blocking any peaceful resolution, becoming more and more intransigent
during the negotiations.
This is evidently a ploy by Azerbaijan to buy time, in the mistaken
belief that with time, it will gain legitimacy in the quest to
reconquer Nagorno Karabakh.
This is based on an Azerbaijani government sanctioned grand design to:
First: Rearm, spending a large portion of its oil revenue building a
better military machine. Azerbaijan is buying billions worth of
armaments from Russia, The USA, Belarus, Ukraine, Turkey, and Israel,
outspending Armenia five to one.
Second: Instilling hatred towards Armenians worldwide in its people.
Extraditing Sapharov, an Azeri officer who had murdered an Armenian
officer in cold blood during a NATO (North Atlantic Treaty
Organization) training event, and welcoming him as a national hero.
Third: Mounting a massive diplomatic campaign against Armenia,
accusing it of occupying Azeri lands, massacring Azeris in Khochalu,
where its inhabitants were granted safe passage out by Armenian forces
before attacking it. Azerbaijani propaganda is depicting the conflict
as a Muslim - Christian strife. This resulted last month, in an
anti-Armenian declaration by the Islamic Conference in Cairo, Egypt.
Fourth: Constantly violating the cease fire agreement across the
Azerbaijan - Nagorno Karabakh front, as well as the Azerbaijan -
Armenia front and refusing to remove snipers and initiating border
incursions that have so far killed many Armenian defense soldiers and
civilians.
Fifth: Targeting the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh as well as the
Armenian Diaspora worldwide, by vilifying our nation as the aggressor
and occupier with a systematic misinformation campaign. This includes
promoting anti Armenian sentiments and presenting the conflict as an
infringement on Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. An anti-Armenian
White House petition was linked to the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, a
project headed by Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliev's multibillionaire
wife, Mehriban Aliyeva.
Sixth: Conditioning a thaw in Armenia - Turkey relations and lifting
of an embargo on Armenia by Turkey on a favorable resolution for
Azerbaijan on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. This is one major reason
Turkey reneged on its commitment on the ill fated Armenia - Turkey
Protocol agreement.
Seventh: Threatening to down civilian passenger aircraft if the
airport in Nagorno Karabakh is put into operation, to forcibly halt
planned commercial flights to Nagorno Karabakh.
Eighth: Trying to organize the Azeri Diaspora and spending millions
with public relation firms to legitimize and propagate an official
misinformation campaign worldwide orchestrated and funded by the
government of Azerbaijan.
Unfortunately, the threat of war is having an effect on the civilian
population of Nagorno Karabakh, which is trying to rebuild a war
ravaged country and has established a viable democratic government.
Belligerent declarations threatening war by both Azeri civilian and
military officials are constant. However, the West is reluctant to
chastise the government of Azerbaijan, and is exercising a policy of
appeasement. This emboldens the Azeri government to be more
intransigent and to test the will and physical resilience of Nagorno
Karabakh defense forces.
Furthermore, the world does not realize and the governing clique in
Azerbaijan cannot conceive, that this is a very dangerous course that
it is following. If Azeri forces were to attack, the push-back by
Nagorno Karabakh and Armenian forces would result in enormous loss of
life, destruction of the oil industry, turmoil in the Caucasus, and
can conceivably result in more territorial losses for Azerbaijan.
Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh have to take Azeri threats very
seriously. To rely on the West to restrain Azerbaijan is futile. If
Azerbaijan continues in its present course of action, blocking a
peaceful resolution of the conflict by grossly miscalculating the
success of the military option, Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh should
seriously consider pulling out of the negotiations and more actively
pursue the recognition of Nagorno Karabakh as an independent nation.
After all, time may be on the side of Azerbaijan. Its massive military
buildup is becoming seriously ominous to a dangerous extent. The
millions spent on its propaganda machine are beginning to have an
effect, by distorting historical precedent. This should remind us that
the West will not always side with the righteous and can at any time
abandon the people of Nagorno Karabakh to their fate.
- See more at: http://asbarez.com/108587/it%E2%80%99s-time-to-expose-azerbaijani-transgressions/#sthash.aLJzv9ML.dpuf