Azerbaijanis, Armenians could peacefully coexist, build foundation for regional integration and peace 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, has said that Azerbaijanis and Armenians could peacefully coexist and collectively build a solid foundation for regional integration and peace in the South Caucasus.

“Discrimination of any kind is abhorrent, and should be resisted under all circumstances. It is also vital that we focus our attention on genuine cases of discrimination and intolerance, avoiding tendencies to find elements of discrimination where there is actually none.

At the outset, allow me to respectfully observe that the speech delivered by the keynote speaker, Isabella Sargysan, was, in my view, a repetition of the carefully constructed official Armenian narrative, full of claims with no leg to stand on Amashov underscored at the start of his speech on the fourth day of the conference on October 5, according to Caliber.Az.

He drew the forum’s attention to two separate, yet interrelated, cases and submitted a recommendation on the basis of their comparative merits.

According to Amashov, the first involves the fate of the Armenian residents of the Garabagh region of Azerbaijan.

“As we know, many decided to leave the region during the past two weeks, after Azerbaijan restored its de facto sovereignty over Garabagh.

The suggestion that the Armenian residents of  Garabagh are being ethnically cleansed or forcefully expelled is both irresponsible and inaccurate. Reports by the international media with access to Garabagh and the ICRC indicate that they have found no instance of this community being forced from their homes. The UN team on the ground stated that no violence was enacted against ethnic Armenians and that civilian infrastructure was left intact. It is very interesting that those Armenian politicians, experts and activists, who vocally vociferously advocated the mass evacuation of Armenians from Garabagh, are those who currently decry the self-same departures as ‘ethnic cleansing’.

The second case is relatively old and relates to the tragic episode of the mass expulsion of Azerbaijanis from their ancestral lands in modern-day Armenia on the basis of ethnic discrimination during the late 80s. That was a genuine case of ethnic cleansing, rendering modern-day Armenia a mono-ethnic, monoreligious nation. Unlike the Armenians in Garabagh, they have never been encouraged to return. In fact, their presence is viewed as undesirable by many in Armenia.

I recommend the OSCE to urge the governments of Azerbaijan and Armenia to work closely and build an atmosphere of trust. Azerbaijan’s attempts to reintegrate the Armenians in Garabagh should be encouraged. It is also vital that Baku and Yerevan work on an interstate arrangement, enabling the dignified and voluntary return of Azerbaijanis to their ancestral lands in Armenia.

Many years ago, former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan infamously said that Azerbaijanis and Armenians are genetically incompatible and cannot live together. This was an extreme case of abhorrent racism;

It is not just that Azerbaijanis and Armenians could peacefully coexist, as was previously the case, but they can also cooperate and collectively build a solid foundation for regional integration and peace in the South Caucasus,” he underlined.

To recap, the 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.