Armenian MP: Turkey aiding Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh means this is a fight for our existence! (E932)

On who started the fight on September 27, 2020:

 I would advise the guest to watch and analyze President Aliyev’s interviews again and try to do so without bias. What is there not to like? The fact that we do not have any single military target in Armenia and that we hold our fire despite our peaceful population being shelled? Or the fact that we don’t like to be dictated upon through putting forward preconditions? Besides, the war is going in the territories of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia. 

The consecutive provocative steps and inflammatory rhetoric by the current political-military leadership of Armenia during last two years has shown that this country is not interested at all in the resolution of the conflict which means the restoration of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.  To name but one, Prime Minister Pashinian declared that “Karabakh is Armenia, Period” in August 2019. And in March 2019 Armenia’s Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan declared that “territories for peace” approach will no longer be applied. Instead he said he is rephrasing it to “new war for new territories”. And that is where Ms. Karapetyan’s answer lies. As we have been warning the international community, Armenia’s political-military leadership by trying to derail peace process, has been preparing for new war along the way. The testimony to that is Armenia’s attack on Azerbaijan three times for the last three month: Back in July Armenia attacked Azerbaijan alongside the international border near Tovuz region of Azerbaijan; in August they sent a group to sabotage Azerbaijani positions and on September 27 Armenia started shelling our positions and cities.   

With regard to civilian attacks 

Armenia’s political-military leadership is solely responsible for current situation and future developments. Starting from day one, Armenia has been attacking civilian population of Azerbaijan living in the regions and cities along the line of contact and removed far from the conflict zone like Ganja, Mingechevir, Terter, Berde, Goranboy, Beylagan and many more. As of 09 October, 31 Azerbaijani civilians were killed by Armenia’s missile attacks. Unlike Armenia we are targeting only military objects. In Khankendi, Azerbaijan’s response was to target an artillery brigade outside of this city which was used to resupply other artillery units. The base was a legitimate military target, but, unfortunately Armenia’s policy of applying human shields around military installments continues. We have warned all civilians to leave the area.  

Regarding “NK defense army” 

The puppet regime illegally established by Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan to consolidate the results of the occupation has not been recognized by a single country in the world. There are only two parties to this conflict which are Armenia and Azerbaijan.  

Regarding the claims on terrorist elements and foreign fighters 

This is Armenian propaganda which we categorically reject. Azerbaijan has full-fledged and skilled military forces as well as capable state agencies to provide every protection the country needs. Yet, there have been numerous reports published in Greek, Arab and other media sources that terrorists of Armenian and non-Armenian descent from elsewhere are going to fight in Nagorno Karabakh. So I would say the nature of the conflict has not changed a lot: it is Armed forces of Armenia backed by terrorists and mercenaries against Armed Forces of Azerbaijan. What has changed is that now other terrorist groups, non-Armenian by nature are involved in the fight against Azerbaijan through good offices of the government of Armenia.  

After all, is it not indicative that a country size of Armenia has over a dozen of groups internationally recognized as terrorists?  

Turkey’s support to Azerbaijan 

Turkey is a strategic partner to Azerbaijan and we have very close relations. Despite our ethnic kinship, language closeness and political affinity, Turkey’s assistance to Azerbaijan confines to political, diplomatic and moral support.   

Moreover, it is at least preposterous for an Armenian representative to talk about “selling one’s sovereignty”.  

UNSC resolutions 

The UNSC resolutions No: 823; 854; 874; 884 of 1993 call for immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of armed forces of Armenia from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Armenia simply cannot continue disregarding the documents that do not suit it. It is disappointing that Armenia’s representative, by calling it “a situational response”, tries to diminish the importance of binding UNSC resolutions. One has to remember that for good or bad, the United Nations is still at the core of the modern international system. Since 1993, nothing has changed. Armenia returned not a single inch of the occupied territories to Azerbaijan.  

With regard to “Velvet Revolution” in Armenia 

In my recent article published in The London Post I recall then President of Armenia Levon Ter Petrosyan’s piece called “War or Peace: Time to get serious”. In this article he maintains that he could have put pressure on Turkey with regard to implementation of Treaty of Sevres, he could have confronted Azerbaijan by recognizing “Nagorno Karabakh”, the actions which would turn him into the idol of Armenian society. However, Petrosyan argues that this would at the end result bring the Armenian nation into abyss. Today I cannot help but think that Armenia’s current political military leadership has brought Armenia to the brink of abyss as Petrosyan envisaged in 1997, yet all to the tune of chanting “democracy” and “Velvet revolution”.  

Attack to Baku-Jeyhan-Tbilisi pipeline  

It sounds utterly paradoxical that the member of a country, which throughout its existence has been blatantly violating the Geneva Conventions; has been constantly resorting to war crimes and crime against humanity; perpetrated Khojaly genocide against civilian population of Azerbaijan back in 1992 is now pretending to understand that attacking the energy infrastructure is a crime. Armenia did try to attack Baku-Jeyhan-Tbilisi oil pipeline on October 6, exactly because of the consequences that this would entail. In fact, being mindful of the possible devastating effects of an attack to energy infrastructure Armenia was aiming to cause safety concerns for Azerbaijan’s European energy partners; to distress Azerbaijan’s economy and eventually its military capacity etc. Armenia is a security threat not only to its close neighbourhood but to wider European region.     

Recently, former Armenian Defence Minister Vaharshak Harutyunyan has expressed during his interview on Russian television that Armenia will first attack the military positions of Azerbaijan and then civilian population and infrastructure of Azerbaijan to cause havoc. And I have nothing to add.