Azerbaijan And Me. A Week Travel Log in Azerbaijan Part 3

Day Three, May 4, 2017

The Armenian Invasion’s Stain, Hope and National Pain

Today was a difficult day having to face and feel the pain of displaced people; facing the pain of a nation under a constant threat of a conflict to erupt. And it appears that there is no solution in sight, there is a constant fragility of the implemented ceasefire and a possible war that could instantly erupt and could spread into even western Europe. And the world’s apathy to the situation is incomprehensible.

The people of Azerbaijan are peace-loving; their neighbor Armenia is not.

On the district’s territories, bordering Armenia, of which are either occupied or affected by the Armenian armed forces

As a result of politically-motivated ethnic cleansing, that during 1988-1992 was conducted by Armenia, over 1 million Azerbaijanis, who were historically living in those places, were forcefully expelled from their land and homes were displaced and were settled in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan And Me. A Week Travel Log in Azerbaijan Part 3 1
Map-Nagorno-Karabakh-Azeri

Starting in 1988, the Armenian armed forces began to forcefully deport Azerbaijanis, living in 126 communities in the Nagorno-Karabakh Khanate. On May 8, 1992, the Khanate’s main city Shusha was invaded and on October 2, 1992, Khojavend town. It was that period – 26th of February – when one of the most tragic moments in the 20th century took place – the city of Khojaly, inhabited by 6,000 Azerbaijanis, with the help of the 366th regiment of the former Soviet army, was completely destroyed by the Armenian army. Within one night 613 civilians, including women, children and elderly were killed and more than 1000 people became disabled and 1275 were taken captive. Families were ravaged, people were burned alive, their heads cut off and eyes hollowed out with unfathomable brutality and cruelty.

What began in 1988, the results of Armenian military forces invasion were that 20% of Azerbaijan’s land, namely Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding provinces, were occupied and more than 1 million Azerbaijanis were internally displaced, causing an economic burden on the country, to be temporarily settled, some in high density settlements.

The Armenian military aggression resulted in 20,000 Azerbaijanis dead, hundreds of wounded and disabled, and the destruction of 17,000 sq. km. of fertile land, with its roads, bridges, water and power supply lines, 900 communities and their housing, industrial and agrarian facilities, schools, medical centres. The cost of the damage in estimated at over 300 billion US Dollars of which some is paid from Azerbaijan’s state budget, from oil revenue and from contributions by international humanitarian organizations.

The National Pain That Will Not Go Away

The conflict is on the mind of every Azerbaijani. I visited a settlement of Internally Displaced People (IDP) on the outskirts of Baku, built in 1993. At first the IDP lived in dormitories in Baku while the government was building their settlements, clean and well-managed apartment blocks, all heavily subsidized by the Azerbaijani government.

Azerbaijan And Me. A Week Travel Log in Azerbaijan Part 3 2
IDP settlement street-over 700 families live in government housing
The writer with IDP settlement kindergarten kids.
The writer with IDP settlement kindergarten kids
Teachers of IDP settlement received me at the entrance to the school - they want to go home.
Teachers of IDP settlement received me at the entrance to the school – they want to go home.

It was an emotionally difficult visit. It is hard to look into the eyes of people who yearn to go back home and cannot.

Armenia White Genocide

Article 2, Part (c) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide from 1948 defines genocide as:

Deliberately inflicting on the group CONDITIONS OF LIFE calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; 3rd-World-Immigration, Assimilation, Integration & Diversity programs target White Nations & ONLY White Nations! All of these programs ultimately lead to White Genocide!

People-to-People Effort – Last Chance for Humanity!?

I also visited the office of Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Platform, a Union of NGOs attempting to work things out between the people of both nations, as if waiting for a political solution appears to be an insoluble bearing.

With Suzan Jaghinyan [L] & Orkhan Nabiyev [R] they head the Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Platform.
With Suzan Jaghinyan [L] & Orkhan Nabiyev [R] they head the Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Platform
It is clear that the corrupt Armenian government is not representing the Armenian people, but an inexplicable vengeance against its neighboring Azerbaijan. Adding to the mix is the fact that Russia is the thorn in this conflict. Without the Russian power behind it, Armenia would not have dared to invade Azerbaijan.

If a war breaks out it will be regional and it will bring about a serious refugee situation. Who exactly wants this to happen and why?

In 1991, when Azerbaijan restored its independence, it met with Armenian oppression. For the past twenty years 20% of Azerbaijan’s rightful land has been under the occupation of the Armenian military forces. There are Armenians living in Azerbaijan but no Azerbaijanis living in Armenia. The cause and effect did not bring about animosity. The Azerbaijani government restored the local Armenian church while the Armenians destroyed all the Azerbaijani houses of worship.

Four United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions were passed which Armenia ignored and violated for the past 20 years and there is no one able to enforce these resolutions. Therefore, what is the point of passing them?

In its almost 26 years of sovereignty, Azerbaijan has worked hard and it has managed to build a very respectable position among the free nations. Now it is time for the nations to pay back respect.

During the 2006 second Lebanon War, Nurit Greenger, referenced then as the “Accidental Reporter” felt compelled to become an activist. Being an ‘out-of-the-box thinker, Nurit is a passionately committed advocate for Jews, Israel, the United States, and the Free World in general. From Southern California, Nurit serves as a “one-woman Hasbarah army” for Israel who believes that if you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything.

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