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INHUMAN CYNICISM TOWARDS ARMENIAN POWS IN AZERBAIJAN
Hakob Badalyan, Political Commentator
Comments - 13 March 2015, 13:47
The U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick twitted on
the decision of the Armenian Olympic Committee to participate in the
first European Olympics in Baku in 2015. Warlick hailed this news
and held out hope that Baku will welcome the decision.
It is hard to tell what the American co-chair means by Baku's welcome.
Does he mean that Azerbaijan should refrain from border incidents
and steps what will cause losses to the Armenian side at least until
the Olympics? And hence does this mean that the decision on the
participation of Armenia had been agreed at a higher political level?
And the next question comes to one's mind: what will happen after
the so-called European Olympics? Will Azerbaijan resume sabotages
and murders at the border? What is to be welcomed then? Are there
any guarantees that after the participation of the Armenian side
Azerbaijan will completely stop sabotages at the border and official
anti-Armenian hate speech? Do the co-chairs, including Warlick,
have such guarantees and can they give such guarantees?
If there are no such guarantees, it turns out that Armenia is taking
part in an advertising campaign for Baku, since the European Olympics
will be such.
Besides, it is interesting to know James Warlick's opinion on the
decision of the United States and allies to boycott the Summer Olympics
in Moscow in 1980 due to the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan.
Does he think it was a good or bad decision?
Azerbaijan has not invaded Armenia, of course, unlike the
USSR in Afghanistan but it announces to destroy Armenia almost
every day, imposes a slow war on Armenia and regularly launches
reconnaissance-in-force on Artsakh and Armenia, fires at the border
villages, kills soldiers and civilians, tortures hostages, violating
all the international law and humanitarian clauses. Azerbaijan makes
a super hero out of Safarov who hacked to death the sleeping Armenian
officer for the new generation.
All this is enough to compare to the invasion in Afghanistan. Hence,
Armenia has all the moral and political reasons to boycott, and these
reasons are no less powerful than those that were underlying the 1980
decision of the United States and the allies.
Hence, if Armenia decides to boycott, there will be no grounds to
blame Armenia for not being constructive.
The impression is that the mediators are always expecting some
"humanitarian" step from Armenia; if it is not returning the saboteurs,
it should at least take part in the Olympics. And in the current stage,
the National Olympic Committee of Armenia seems to have taken this
step. However, it is not clear why.
At any rate, the discussion of the issue of Armenia's participation
could be justified in one case - if Azerbaijan commits in written
form to refrain from attempts at violation of the ceasefire, return
all the Armenian PoWs, and the international mediators establish a
mechanism of liability for violation of this commitment.
Otherwise, the participation of Armenia in the European Olympics in
Baku is a humiliation of Armenia's national dignity, profanation of
the memory of civilians and soldiers killed by Azerbaijan, inhuman
cynicism towards Armenian prisoners of war kept and tortured in
Azerbaijani prisons.
The attempts of the mediators to achieve peace and mutual understanding
are commendable but it is impossible to achieve peace and tolerance
through profanation of the dignity and memory of Armenia and Armenians.
Peace, mutual understanding and tolerance are highly important
and desirable but it is impossible to achieve this purpose through
unilateral gestures at the expense of Armenia and the Armenians which
have never been followed by Baku's response but further aggravated
intolerance and hatred in Baku.
In this regard, generation of "good news" by Armenia, as experience
showed, only made Azerbaijan more aggressive. Hence, Armenia should
stop such generation for the sake of stability and tolerance in the
region until the mediators teach Azerbaijan at least one fourth of
Armenia's knowledge of the language of tolerance.
http://www.lragir.am/index/eng/0/comments/view/33754#sthash.3DQzzl55.dpuf
From: Baghdasarian
Hakob Badalyan, Political Commentator
Comments - 13 March 2015, 13:47
The U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick twitted on
the decision of the Armenian Olympic Committee to participate in the
first European Olympics in Baku in 2015. Warlick hailed this news
and held out hope that Baku will welcome the decision.
It is hard to tell what the American co-chair means by Baku's welcome.
Does he mean that Azerbaijan should refrain from border incidents
and steps what will cause losses to the Armenian side at least until
the Olympics? And hence does this mean that the decision on the
participation of Armenia had been agreed at a higher political level?
And the next question comes to one's mind: what will happen after
the so-called European Olympics? Will Azerbaijan resume sabotages
and murders at the border? What is to be welcomed then? Are there
any guarantees that after the participation of the Armenian side
Azerbaijan will completely stop sabotages at the border and official
anti-Armenian hate speech? Do the co-chairs, including Warlick,
have such guarantees and can they give such guarantees?
If there are no such guarantees, it turns out that Armenia is taking
part in an advertising campaign for Baku, since the European Olympics
will be such.
Besides, it is interesting to know James Warlick's opinion on the
decision of the United States and allies to boycott the Summer Olympics
in Moscow in 1980 due to the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan.
Does he think it was a good or bad decision?
Azerbaijan has not invaded Armenia, of course, unlike the
USSR in Afghanistan but it announces to destroy Armenia almost
every day, imposes a slow war on Armenia and regularly launches
reconnaissance-in-force on Artsakh and Armenia, fires at the border
villages, kills soldiers and civilians, tortures hostages, violating
all the international law and humanitarian clauses. Azerbaijan makes
a super hero out of Safarov who hacked to death the sleeping Armenian
officer for the new generation.
All this is enough to compare to the invasion in Afghanistan. Hence,
Armenia has all the moral and political reasons to boycott, and these
reasons are no less powerful than those that were underlying the 1980
decision of the United States and the allies.
Hence, if Armenia decides to boycott, there will be no grounds to
blame Armenia for not being constructive.
The impression is that the mediators are always expecting some
"humanitarian" step from Armenia; if it is not returning the saboteurs,
it should at least take part in the Olympics. And in the current stage,
the National Olympic Committee of Armenia seems to have taken this
step. However, it is not clear why.
At any rate, the discussion of the issue of Armenia's participation
could be justified in one case - if Azerbaijan commits in written
form to refrain from attempts at violation of the ceasefire, return
all the Armenian PoWs, and the international mediators establish a
mechanism of liability for violation of this commitment.
Otherwise, the participation of Armenia in the European Olympics in
Baku is a humiliation of Armenia's national dignity, profanation of
the memory of civilians and soldiers killed by Azerbaijan, inhuman
cynicism towards Armenian prisoners of war kept and tortured in
Azerbaijani prisons.
The attempts of the mediators to achieve peace and mutual understanding
are commendable but it is impossible to achieve peace and tolerance
through profanation of the dignity and memory of Armenia and Armenians.
Peace, mutual understanding and tolerance are highly important
and desirable but it is impossible to achieve this purpose through
unilateral gestures at the expense of Armenia and the Armenians which
have never been followed by Baku's response but further aggravated
intolerance and hatred in Baku.
In this regard, generation of "good news" by Armenia, as experience
showed, only made Azerbaijan more aggressive. Hence, Armenia should
stop such generation for the sake of stability and tolerance in the
region until the mediators teach Azerbaijan at least one fourth of
Armenia's knowledge of the language of tolerance.
http://www.lragir.am/index/eng/0/comments/view/33754#sthash.3DQzzl55.dpuf
From: Baghdasarian