THE PEOPLE OF ARTSAKH HAVE THE PROBLEM OF EXERISING THE FUNDAMENTAL INTERNATIONAL RIGHT OF NATIONS TO SELF-DETERMINATION.
I ADDRESS THE PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL, PARLIAMENTARIANS, GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS:
The joint efforts of the leaders of the three OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries - Russia, France and the United States of America to announce ceasefire, fail for the third time.
It is impossible to stop the brutal war imposed on Artsakh because we are dealing with a head of state who grossly violates the UN Charter, all the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols, as well as other sources of international humanitarian law, fails to fulfill international obligations and ignores his own commitments. Relying on foreign powers and other countries, he tries to carry out ethnic cleansing, that is, genocidal acts against the Armenians of Karabakh, who have lived in their homeland for thousands of years, to spread its dictatorial aspirations towards the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic - an island of democracy.
Impunity և audacity have reached the point that the enemy encroaches on the state border of the Republic of Armenia and threatens its integrity.
The South Caucasus has been turned into a sea of blood by Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem and mercenary terrorists․
Erdogan, whose actions seem to be forgiven by the West and NATO, to which he is a member, is increasing his far-reaching ambitions.
Our heroic Army is defending the Armenian Artsakh at the cost of persistent battles lasting more than a month, at the same time defending the borders of high human values, keeping the terrorists away from the foundations of civilization. Alas, our brave young people,who had bright dreams and unfulfilled goals, are dying, ․․․
We pay homage and incense to the sacred memory of the martyred heroes, to the grief of their parents and families.
Reading, listening to and watching news about the heroic deeds of our patriotic youth along the border, the organized actions of our invincible Army and the steps taken by the Diaspora, our souls swell with indescribable excitement.
Feelings of pain, pride and national dignity are mixed to squeeze our throats; we want to shout to everyone: stop; world, hold the hand of the evil and wicked, stand by the biblical Armenian people who saw genocide but were not exterminated, so that life and existence, pure light and peace, humanity and civilization prevailin the cruel struggle of life and death, good and evil, light and darkness.
The two so-called fraternal countries with a population of one hundred million, accumulating huge reserves of weapons with their oil dollars, use them not only on the battlefield, but also destroy cities and villages, endangering the civilian population and facilities. Thousands of people (about 90 thousand) have left their homes.
The situation is fatal ․․․
I have been a member of the Parliament for more than twenty years, I have been included in the delegations of the Armenian Parliament working with international structures and I am well aware of the united strength and opportunities of the parliamentarians in terms of influencing various international processes.
Therefore, I address the people of good will, the parliamentarians, the politicians in power, the heads of international organizations, and urge them to take concrete practical steps to restrain Turkey and Azerbaijan. Every second of delay takes human lives.
Just expressing regret, non-coercive calls, statements, attempts to put a sign of equality between the two sides are meaningless - this does not save human lives.
Parliamentarians from different countries (Russia, France, the USA) have already come up with initiatives aimed at making resolutions against Turkey and Azerbaijan, based on information received from various sources.The authorities of some cities and states have recognized the independence of Artsakh. The Australian state of New South Wales recognized the independence of NagornoKarabakh two years ago. And this process must continue, because only with the recognition of Artsakh it is possible to stop the bloodshed, to prevent the destructive Turkish aspirations.
Let's try to summarize what is really happening and hope that the decision-making structures will consider these facts when taking steps. It is necessary to help the executive authorities of the states to apply the necessary sanctions as:
- The Defense Army of the Artsakh Republic fights against hired terrorists, which is the task of the international anti-terrorist coalition, while this small country and its brave people are fighting alone against thousands of terrorists,
- The enemy uses weapons and ammunition not permitted by the international humanitarian law, as well as other prohibited means and methods of warfare, including phosphorous weapon containing chemical elements,
- Violating all international norms, the Azeri torture the Armenian captives inhumanely, shoot and even behead them. Meanwhile in Artsakh, the Azeri captives are operated on and provided with comprehensive humanitarian aid,
- There is a humanitarian catastrophe in the region as there are unburied corpses according to the International Committee of the Red Cross observers, who are prohibited from participating in the collection and exchange of corpses,
- The enemy leave their wounded soldiers helpless on the battlefield,
- The enemy shell the peaceful population and civilian settlements. There are already about 50 dead and hundreds of wounded among the civilian population of Artsakh,
- The enemy shell life support facilities, civil infrastructure, roads, bridges, water lines, schools, kindergartens,
- The enemy rocket and target cultural monuments, churches, hospitals, cemeteries,
- 90,000 people - children, women, elderly citizens - have been evacuated from Artsakh, many of them are in shelters, under difficult conditions; their rights to health care, education, work, free movement and others are being violated,
- The subversive groups infiltrate rural areas, kill children, the disabled and women,
- The enemy obstruct the work of foreign journalists bombing their locations with drones. Dozens of Armenian, French and Russian journalists were injured during this period.
- The enemyencroach on the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia, shellthe settlements close to and farther than the borderline as a result of which citizens of the Republic of Armenia are killed and injured,
- It is noteworthy that the enemy has provoked an aggressive war and is carrying out large-scale military operations in the conditions of an epidemic,
- According to the Azerbaijani leadership, they have allegedly occupied most of Artsakh, but the truth is that Artsakh heroically confronts the Turkish-Azerbaijani-mercenary terrorist forces,
- Azerbaijan violates the rights of national minorities mainly sending them to the front lines with mercenaries. This is evidenced by the heavy losses (more than 40% of the victims are representatives of national minorities) suffered by national minorities,
- Azerbaijan violates human rights and freedoms: the population is deprived of an access to objective information, the latter being completely falsified,
- The President of Turkey threatens everyone; violating the rules of international morality and all the norms of diplomatic ethics, he insults the President of France, slanders the United States and other countries,
- The Republic of Armenia and Artsakh agree on the deployment of an international peacekeeping force, the presence of military experts, while the Azerbaijani side does not agree andrejects all proposals,
- Even in this difficult situation, there are countries, especially European states, that do not refuse to sell military equipment and weapons to Azerbaijan, considering economic interests higher than the human rights and freedoms they have declared, even higher than the right to human life, and the necessity of protection of the right of people to live (exist) in their own
At the same time, I address the people of good will and plead to influence their governments through collaboration with our communities to ban the sale of weapons to the hearth of terrorism.
- Azerbaijan, in complicity with Turkey, is committing war crimes which should receive adequate international legal assessments being qualified as crimes against peace and security of humanity, and war criminals should be brought to justice in Nuremberg.
This tragedy and international crimes would less likely to happen if
- The West was not indifferent to the Armenian Genocide: it should once have stopped the Turkish criminals, who committed heinous murders with the meanest, bloodthirsty, barbaric means, known or unknown to the mankind, who slaughtered pregnant women and rejoiced on putting the fetus on the edge of the sword. They raped and then killed women, slaughtered sons on their fathers' knees, hung people upside down from trees, skinned and mutilated them with axes and hammers, and committed other crimes beyond all human imagination…
Justice, freedom, pluralism, democracy, tolerance - these values and lofty ideas are the belief of the people, but once Armenians paid dearly for believing in these European values and ideas because they were incomprehensible and unacceptable to Turkish dictators, who muted the Armenian people in the most brutal and terrifying way - through committing genocide.
William Gladstone, who became the Prime Minister of Great Britain four times, gave an exact description of the essence and activity of the Turks during the Hamidian massacres. "Wherever the Turks went, they left a wide trail of blood after them. The more their reign spread, the more civilization disappeared. To serve Armenia means to serve civilization ... ”
It is a pity that there are still states that have made no judgment about this monstrous crime of the 20th century, the massacre and the deprivation of the homeland of the Armenian people, genocide and patricide.
- The world remained indifferentto the Sumgait and Baku massacres, when ethnic cleansing was committed, և 400,000 Armenians became homeless, when an Azeri swindler killed a sleeping Armenian officer, 26-year-old Gurgen, with 16strokes ofax in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, during the training program “Partnership for Peace” organized by Hungary, calling itself a member of the European Union, handed over the murderer to Azerbaijan, which glorified the criminal. Only recently has the European Court of Justice ruled a fair decision against Azerbaijan (although it is hard to believe that this country is capable of enforcing international court rulings).
- A cultural genocide was committed in Jugha: the centuries-old monuments and tombstones of the Armenian people were destroyed by the Azerbaijani army, the unique khachkar (cross-stone) field consisting of ten thousand monuments was leveled to the ground. Despite numerous requests from UNESCO, the savages did not stop and did not allow any observer or expert to enter the field of the former khachkars that had been slaughtered and turned into a military shooting range.
- In April 2016 and in July 2020, the enemy unleashed a military aggression not only against Karabakh, but also against Armenia, and received a worthy counterattack. After the ceasefire, he again and again did not fulfill the agreements reached in Geneva and St. Petersburg and again remained unpunished.
- The Armenian-Turkish border has been closed for about 30 years which is a gross violation of international law;however,no international organization or a country has ever addressed this issue.
- Experts estimate that there are 2-3 million Islamized Armenians living in Turkey, as well as foreigners who are afraid to assert their national identity, which is a gross violation of human rights and freedoms.
- Turkey freely occupied a part of Cyprus, still violatesall international norms in the Mediterranean Sea and remaining unpunished continues his 'mission', despite Greece (which is a member of the European Union) consistently complainingand addressing Erdogan's illegalNevertheless, Europe has not applied any sanction towards Turkey yet.The latter continues his destructive activities in Syria and Libya to satisfy his Pan-Turkism aspirations.
Honorable colleagues, dear readers,
Today, the people of Artsakh have the problem of exercising the fundamental international right of nations to self-determination. The world has long condemned and annulled all Stalin's decisions, but the decision on annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh, for some reason, still has power for the Azerbaijani, which is why Azerbaijan still continues its slanders. However, Artsakh can never be part of Azerbaijan. Countries made up of nomadic tribes with a history of only a hundred years are trying to conquer the indigenous people living in the world of Artsakh and having a history and culture of millennia. If the fall of the Berlin Wall heralded the demarcation of the dividing line in Europe, why decades later are the Armenian republics besieged by two neighboring states which are restricting the right of people to free movement?
While Azerbaijan can be proud of violating its international obligations, committing war crimes, destroying Armenian cultural values, its oil and gas reserves, infamous "caviar" diplomacy, spreading corruption and fraud in Europe, and thus leaving indelible black marks on European values, the subject of our pride is the Armenian man with his powerful potential; our invaluable capital are the sons of the Armenian people, who spread all over the world after the genocide, reached from ocean to ocean, from continent to continent, to form the Armenian Diaspora. With their progressive thinking and peaceful, creative work, they generate vital values, spread the amazing light and spiritual power of science and culture, and serve the development and progress of civilization. You witness all parts of the Armenian Diaspora to be in turmoil, demanding the truth from the local authorities and the media every day, longing for an end to the bloodshed, longing for justice with their peaceful demonstrations, tricolors, marches and motorcades, sit-ins and speeches, with calls, songs, terrifying "screaming" silence and publications ․․․
I want to believe that foreign artists and writers, political scientists and parliamentarians, scientists and pedagogues, analysts and journalists will join the just demands of the Armenian people. Young people must unite and jointly condemn the bloody war against Artsakh, as well as raise their voices against the two Turkish terrorist states that sponsor international terrorism and use mercenaries for their insidious and conspiratorial purposes.
These days, Russian, French, American parliamentarians, analysts, TV commentators, journalists, political scientists with high human and professional qualities, to whom we are grateful, are struggling with their true words. Righteous people cannot remain indifferent and silent and encourage terrorism with their silence.
Dear friend, decision-maker, impartial members of society and parliament,
Diaspora Armenians are honest, law-abiding citizens, your friends, relatives, voters living in your countries, who believe and trust you, have high expectations that you will take fair decisions in the parliaments of your countries, in various instances, and in the international organizations where you are a member based on the following indisputable truths:
- The only way to stop the fire in the region, to stabilize the situation, and the pathway to salvation is the recognition of the sovereignty of the NagornoKarabakh Republic, the independence of the Artsakh Republic based on the fundamental right of nations to self-determination in accordance with which Artsakh, which has been independent through a referendum, has been building a democratic, social and legal state for thirty years.
- To contribute by all means to the establishment of a ceasefire and the cessation of bloodshed returning to the negotiation process.
- To impose sanctions on Turkey and Azerbaijan:
- freeze their membership in all international organizations,
- cancel all contracts related to military-technical supply,
- temporarily suspend all economic and trade ties and relations,
- recall the ambassadors and the heads of diplomatic missions accredited in these countries.
I believe that only through joint efforts and as a result of taking comprehensive measures, it will be possible to curb the aspirations of the Turkish-Azerbaijani-terrorist tandem to dominate the region and implement the cracked ideas of creating a new Ottoman Empire.
Hranush Hakobyan
Doctor of Law, Professor,
Member of the Armenian Parliament for more than twenty years,
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, the Republic of Armenia,
Founding Minister of Diaspora, the Republic of Armenia,
President of the Armenian Women's Union