Category: 2018

During the hearings dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Sumgayit events held at the California State Senate at the behest of the radical Armenian lobby in the US, a representative of the lobby disseminated biased and distorted information about the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, APAreported citing AZERTAC.

At the end of the hearings, the public was invited to offer comments.

Young members of the Azerbaijani community in California, speaking in perfect English, drew the attention to solid facts and exposed the misinformation provided by the Armenian lobby. Some harsh questions were asked about why they did not mention the 1 million Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced people who had been expelled from their native lands as a result of Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan; whereas both the senators and the representative of the Armenian lobby discussed the Sumgayit incidents, why the Khojaly Genocide committed in 1992 by Armenia against Azerbaijani civilians was not discussed; why the Azerbaijani community had not been invited to offer their perspective as well; and why the senators showed utter one-sidedness and bias. Following these questions, the members of the Armenian lobby tried their hardest to help Senator Portantino out of the difficult situation. But by exposing themselves, the lobby actually achieved quite the opposite.

Commenting on one of the comments, the U.S. Western Region Director of the Armenian Assembly of America, Mihran Toumajan, admitted that the Khojaly Massacre of 1992 against Azerbaijani civilians was committed by Armenian troops. Here is what Toumajan said verbatim: “Senator Portantiono, thank you very much for holding this hearing. My name is Mihran Toumajan, Western Region Director of the Armenian Assembly of America. I just want to respond actually to students here of Azerbaijani descent who falsely equate the tragedy in Khojaly to genocide. It is clearly not a genocide. It is a tragedy. But one thing is for certain. The prominent Azerbaijani journalist, who died in a very young age, Chingiz Mustafayev, documented the Khojaly tragedy. And his video documentation clearly shows that Armenian forces had forewarned Azerbaijani citizens, Azerbaijanis who were living in Khojaly, days in advance that there was going to be a lot of.. of.. of.. of.. fierce fighting in Khojaly. And they were warned. The corridor was also opened by the Armenian troops to allow for civilians to pass through, Azerbaijani civilians. Many civilians did pass through, but many did not. And Mustafayev and there are other journalists, Azeri journalists who attested to the fact that many Azerbaijanis were killed because they did not leave when that corridor was available to them.”

Indeed, this human being, one of the leaders of the Armenian lobby in America, acknowledges the killing of the Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian armed forces in Khojaly, and uses a very ludicrous argument to justify and whitewash this crime in his own way. How can you justify the brutal murder of innocent people – women, children and the elderly?

In fact, one of the leaders of the Armenian lobby in the US admitted that the civilian population of Azerbaijan’s Khojaly town was killed by Armenian armed forces. 

Russia’s position on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is clear, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Friday, an APAcorrespondent reported from Moscow.

“Our position on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is clear. There are no changes in this position,” Zakharova said when asked about Moscow’s position on a possible involvement of Karabakh’s separatist regime in the negotiation process.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCEMinsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in December 1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.  

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh. 

Former Undersecretary of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, former Member of Turkish Parliament representing Republican People’s Party (CHP) and well-known specialist on international relations Onur Oymen’s interview with APA

– A few days ago, Armenian president stated that protocols signed with Turkish government on August 31, 2009 in Switzerland have been abrogated. You had been against the signing of the Zurich protocols on October 9, 2009 and had continued this fight even after it was signed. What would you want to say about this after nine years?

–  We have repeatedly said that normalization of relations with Armenia is absurd because it has so groundless claims against Turkey, and has committed Khojaly massacre and has been keeping Azerbaijan’s territories under occupation for long years. Zurich protocols were dead-born child. A few months later, Armenian Court of Constitution made a decision that the protocols will not be fulfilled because they were in contradiction with spirit of Declaration of Independence of Armenia and thrown them into a rubbish bin. At the time, I had repeatedly offered to withdraw the Zurich protocols from the agenda of The Grand National Assembly of Turkey. It was meaningless to keep the issue, which the people don’t accept, on the agenda of the parliament. Statement by the Armenian president looks like the burial of the dead. There is no meaning in signing protocols with a country which erects monument commemorating members of ASALA terrorist organization, which murdered Turkish diplomats, to try to normalize relations. Armenian president announced the decision that we forecasted nine years ago.

– You mean those who want to ‘normalize’ the relations between Turkey and Armenia must not forget results of Zurich protocols, don’t you?

–  Of course. How can we talk about normalization of relations with a country which does not recognize Turkey’s territorial integrity, claims lands from us, slanders us with the claims of so-called ‘genocide’, keeps Azerbaijan’s territories under occupation and committed genocide against Turks?

– How will Armenia’s decision to abrogate the Zurich protocols affect the integration of forces of Turkey and Azerbaijan?

– We must combine our forces in all fields. Turkey must bring the issue on Azerbaijan’s occupied territories and Khojaly genocide committed by Armenia up for discussion every day. Turkey should not allow this issue to stay out of world’s agenda. Turkey must do its best for fulfilment of UN Security Council’s resolutions. Fate of occupied seven regions must be focused on.

– How would you comment on Holland’s decision on recognition of so-called ‘Armenian genocide’ and Swedish court’s decision on refusal of municipality’s demand to erect monument of ‘Armenian genocide’?

– Before Holland, German Bundestag passed a decision to recognize so-called ‘Armenian genocide’ in early June 2016. All of these decisions are in contradiction with the international law.  Despite Holland considers itself as a centre of international criminal law, parliament’s decision is groundless. Because for recognition of an event as the genocide, it’s needed a verdict by any local court or independent international court defined by the UN. As there is not any decision on 1915 events, the European Court for Human Rights had also hinted on the Perincek-Switzerland case that 1915 events cannot be characterized as ‘genocide’. Therefore, those decisions by parliaments are meaningless. Swedish court made a correct decision. Municipalities cannot pass a decision on ‘genocide’, they don’t have authority to erect monument of ‘genocide’. Europe and the world will understand it better.