"Azerbaijan determined to reintegrate Garabagh’s ethnic Armenians into the fabric of society" Caliber's analyst says at OSCE's Human Dimension Conference

Addressing the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference, Caliber.Az analyst Orkhan Amashov, who is representing Azerbaijani civil society institutions, made a series of high-profile statements, drawing the attention of the international forum to Baku’s zeal to restore its own internationally-recognized territories and bring peace to the war-torn region.

"No nation-state could or should tolerate any form of illegal entity or unrecognised ‘elections’ on its sovereign territory. The rule of law must be absolute, and the constitutional order of a given state should apply to the fullest scope of its sovereign territory," Amashov underscored at the start of his speech on the second day of the conference on October 3, according to Caliber.Az.

This 10-day conference is dedicated to discussions on the condition of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the OSCE area. The conference provides a platform to evaluate the implementation of the OSCE Human Dimension commitments, and offers a forum for participants to present their current work and raise issues that they believe merit the urgent attention of the international community.

He drew the forum’s attention to the Garabagh separatists’ 30-year-long impunity, saying that “Azerbaijan faced insufferable impunity in the shape of a separatist junta, propped up by neighbouring Armenia, both financially and militarily, for too long - for more than 30 years.

"On 9 September, this illegal and unrecognised separatist entity, self-styled as the ‘NKR [Nagorno-Garabagh Republic],’ held sham elections in the Azerbaijani city of Khankendi: thankfully, the international community, including many OSCE participating states, and the EU, condemned these elections, reiterating support for Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and declaring that the framework within which they were held was utterly unacceptable,” the analyst said.

Amashov also regretted about OSCE’s silence over the sham elections in now Azerbaijan’s former separatist region, saying that “but, to be absolutely blunt, and it is very sad to say this, the OSCE itself, this noble and august organisation, failed to issue a firm condemnation of these sham elections. This remains deeply regrettable.”

Following Azerbaijan’s 19-20 September anti-terror measures in Garabagh that have brought the grey zone under the nation’s full control, the analyst underscored the new chapter being opened to re-introduce peace and order in the war-ravaged region.

“As we know today, that grey zone in Garabagh wherein the separatist junta in question and illegal Armenian armed forces were present, is now being dismantled with demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration measures, known as DDR, are now being implemented. And, on 28 September, the separatist entity itself issued a decree on self-dissolution. This opens a new chapter, giving rise to the establishment of the rule of law and installation of democratic legitimate institutions in Azerbaijan’s Garabagh region.”

The analyst further added that the Azerbaijani government is determined to reintegrate Garabagh’s ethnic Armenians into the fabric of society and the process has already started.

“The task now is to ensure that, in addition to reintegrating the infrastructure of the area in Garabagh into the rest of Azerbaijan, the rights and security of the local Armenian residents of Garabagh are respected and maintained in line with the Azerbaijani Constitution and international conventions to which Azerbaijan is a signatory. It is also vital that the participation of the Armenian residents of Garabagh in the governance of the region will be ensured," Amashov said.

“And presently, we are at a very important juncture. The re-integration process is underway and we very much hope that those Armenians, who left Garabagh as a result of the last events, some of them who consider themselves Garabagh Armenians will return and become Azerbaijani citizens. And this also presents absolutely brilliant opportunity for Azerbaijan and Armenia finally to end hostilities and sign a long-awaited peace deal,” he concluded.