Crimes without a statute of limitations: Armenia must answer for everything
The world has no right to remain silent!

ANALYTICS  18 September 2023 - 16:14

It is impossible not to agree with former Kyrgyz Prime Minister Djoomart Otorbayev, who said that the international conference “Intensifying national and global efforts to determine the fate of missing persons” that started in Baku is very timely and necessary. It is extremely important that all the crimes committed by Armenia against Azerbaijan are not only known, but also spoken about wherever possible.

We have already witnessed a truly amazing story in which the United States and France began to condemn Baku for the performance that the Karabakh separatists are staging on Azerbaijani soil. Think about the cynicism of the situation - they are trying to tell Azerbaijan when and by what road cargo should be delivered for Armenians illegally residing in the territory of the Karabakh economic region of our country! And this despite the fact that there is not a single Azerbaijani citizen in Armenia.

Accordingly, there is no one there to send cargo there either. But, speaking more broadly, the rights of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia as a result of the conflict it unleashed are not protected in any way. This is a classic example of a crime without punishment.

Exactly the same can be said about the fact that there are still no Azerbaijanis living in Khankendi, Khojaly, Agdara and other settlements of the Karabakh economic region of Azerbaijan. But that is not all. Armenia committed heinous crimes during the 44-day war. It launched missile attacks on peaceful Azerbaijani cities. The bombing of Ganja, carried out using ballistic missiles and rocket artillery, took place on October 4, 8, 11 and 17, 2020. As a result, 32 civilians were killed and dozens were injured. In addition, on October 27-28, 2020, the Armenian Armed Forces subjected the peaceful city of Barda to artillery and rocket fire, as a result of which 27 people were killed and another 1,056 were injured.

All this was carried out on the direct orders of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, whom they are now trying to present as a democrat and a great supporter of peace. And this is also an example of a crime without punishment. But it doesn't end there. From November 2020 to today, 306 Azerbaijanis have died from mines and unexploded ordnance. These are the crimes that Armenia committed after the end of the 44-day war. And it also makes sense to announce them regularly and loudly everywhere.

Exactly the same as about the crimes committed by Armenia during the First Karabakh War.

“On the eve of this conference, we achieved the identification of the remains of 10 more of our citizens, of which 9 were military personnel and one was a civilian.” Chairman of the State Commission for Prisoners, Missing Persons and Hostages, Head of the State Security Service (SSS), Col-Gen Ali Nagiyev, said this at the conference “Strengthening national and global efforts to determine the fate of missing persons”. He noted that among them is National Hero of Azerbaijan Riad Ahmadov.

So, after more than three decades, R. Ahmadov’s relatives and friends received the final, tragic news about his fate.

In his message to the participants of the international conference, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev cited chilling figures - during the First Karabakh War, 3,890 of our citizens went missing as a result of the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia.

“There is irrefutable evidence that 872 of the total number of missing persons were taken as prisoners of war or remained in the previously occupied territories. According to reliable information, the missing persons were tortured, murdered by Armenia and buried in mass graves in the previously occupied territories of Azerbaijan,” the president said.

He rightly pointed out that Armenia’s contamination of Azerbaijani territories with mines and unexploded ordnance creates serious obstacles to the process of identifying mass graves and carrying out exhumation work. It is also indisputable that Armenia, in gross violation of its obligations arising from international humanitarian law, does not provide Azerbaijan with information about the fate of missing persons and the exact location of mass graves.

Official Yerevan fears that the whole truth about the real scale of the crimes committed by Armenians during the conflict, having become known to the wider world community, will interfere with their plans to distort reality. Yes, Armenia’s attempts to appear almost in the image of a victim are monstrous and blasphemous. And more and more new facts discovered by Azerbaijan and published by our country make the attempts of the world Armenians and official Yerevan more and more ridiculous and cynical.

Ali Nagiyev also expressed hope that Armenia will provide Azerbaijan with accurate maps of minefields, information about the fate of missing persons and their burial places. This was a direct appeal to the Armenian authorities, who so love to talk about their readiness to take concrete steps towards peace.

The lack of readiness of official Yerevan to fulfill the justified demands of Azerbaijan will prove the deceitfulness and immorality of the game of the Armenian leadership. But, of course, those who are trying so hard to portray the role of arbitrators, while in reality looking more and more like Trojan horses, should also play their significant role in putting pressure on official Yerevan. Yes, this is the USA, France, Russia. These three countries, which were once co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, should have long ago condemned all the crimes of Armenia and achieved the introduction of strict sanctions against it. That did not happen. And this was already clear proof of the inappropriateness of any demands on Azerbaijan on their part.

Now, when more and more new facts of Armenian barbarity are regularly discovered during the 35-year conflict, they simply cannot remain silent without losing the remnants of respect for themselves in our country and in the world. Because nowhere and never should there be crimes without punishment.

Caliber.Az