Interview with Aytan Mustafayeva, director of the National Academy of Sciences' Human Rights Institute and a Milli Majlis deputy.
Q: How would you comment on the 24 January meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia in Moscow, to discuss the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?
A: Unfortunately, we saw the latest ineffectual meeting on a peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. In the prevailing conditions, caused by Yerevan's destructive position, Russian and western political scientists often talk about the possible resumption of hostilities in the conflict area. They say Azerbaijan has the potential, both legal and military, to restore its territorial integrity. Also the world has seen that the Armenian leadership is not independent in decision-making and depends largely on the position of Armenians worldwide, who are still crazy about myths, including the myth of "Great Armenia" and recognition of the "Armenian genocide" by Turkey. In order to achieve their objectives, the Armenians diaspora have repeatedly committed crimes, including terror acts, in different countries in which mostly innocent civilians suffered.
Q: May Armenian terrorists be associated with the terror act at Domodedovo Airport?
A: There are several factors at least that support this theory. For example, there was a recent report that the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) had resumed its activity following the failure to get the bill on recognition of the "Armenian genocide" submitted to the US Congress. We remember that eight people were killed in a terror attack at Orly Airport in Paris [in 1983]. This terrorist act was committed by Syrian Armenian Varujan Karapetyan who was the head of the French branch of ASALA. And finally, the terror act at Domodevodo was committed on the day that the foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia met in Moscow. It cannot be ruled out that Armenian terrorists were sending a threat to Russia and Azerbaijan. Diaspora Armenians simply do not have any other means of putting pressure on the international community, which is why they state their readiness to use terror in the hope of intimidating the international community, unaware that such threats are inadmissible and that they just prove the international community's weakness in holding civic dialogue.
Q: Is one reason for Yerevan's destructive position in the negotiating process that, in the event of a resolution, Armenia would have to pay compensation for material and moral damage to the occupied lands?
A: Of course, one of the main aspects of a fair, comprehensive resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno- Karabakh is determining Armenia's responsibility in international law for aggression and the occupation of Azerbaijani land and the related issues of compensation for the material and moral damage to Azerbaijan.
In terms of international law, there is no doubt about Armenia's responsibility. In a crude violation of the norms and main principles of international law and the UN Charter, Armenia did not only launch an aggressive war, which is a crime against the world and entails serious responsibility for the aggressor under international law, but also ignored the prohibition on the use of force against the territorial integrity and inviolability of another state and occupied 20% of Azerbaijani land. This fact was reflected in four resolutions of the UN Security Council on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. The UN Security Council in its resolutions states that the Nagorno-Karabakh region belongs to Azerbaijan. This shows that Armenia crudely violates the generally accepted norms and principles of contemporary international law, which sets a clear model for the conduct of states, ensuring that they abstain from any action to violate the territorial integrity of another state.
Q: What is the scale of the damage done to Azerbaijan by Armenia as the result of the occupation?
A: The Armenian aggression killed over 20,000 Azerbaijanis, over 50,000 were injured or permanently disabled. Thousands of people went missing. The mass execution of Azerbaijanis without investigation, the beating, torture and cruel, inhumane treatment of prisoners of war and civilians, the forced exploitation of Azerbaijanis were common in Armenia and the occupied lands. The occupied regions of Azerbaijan were pillaged and destroyed. The direct economic damage to the administrative regions of Azerbaijan, adjacent to the front line, as well as the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, is also great. Overall, some 900 Azerbaijani settlements were pillaged and destroyed. According to provisional data, the overall cost of the material and moral damage of Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan runs into tens of billions of US dollars.
Akper Hasanov
News.Az
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