Open Letter to NSW MPs from the distressed Azerbaijani community
The Azerbaijani communities from around Australia have united to express our deep disappointment about Hugh McDermott’s motion regarding the current ‘Armenia and Azerbaijan’ conflict, which passed the NSW Parliament on the 22nd of October, 2020.
Unfortunately, the NSW Parliament’s motion on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict is based on distorted facts and patently false claims heavily promoted by the nationalist Armenian diaspora in Australia. The Armenian diaspora is fuelled by the aggressive Government of Armenia — the country that was occupying 20% of the internationally recognized sovereign territory of Azerbaijan for almost 30 years. The country that forced the displacement of almost 1 million of Azerbaijanis from their historic lands in Nagorno-Karabakh, seven surrounding regions of Azerbaijan and from Armenia itself. The country is responsible for numerous war crimes and the massacre of 613 ethnic Azerbaijanis in the town of Khojaly in February 1992.
The NSW Parliament’s statements have not been duly verified with real evidence and therefore contradict International law, multiple resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and Australia’s official stance. Our concern is that such divisive, misleading and hateful foreign rhetoric has made its way into the Australian politics to directly insult other ethnicities living in Australia, and essentially cause threat and segregation on Australian soil.
We are grateful to the Australian Government that rightfully supports the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Australian Government’s stance is in line with the statements delivered by the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union, as well as the OSCE Minsk Group, which demands the removal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and does not recognise the self-proclaimed “Republic of Artsakh’’.
Our community of Azerbaijanis include both migrants from Azerbaijan and first-generation Australians. We are a diverse group, coming from different geographical regions of Azerbaijan, including different ethnicities (Jews, Russians, Talishs, Lezgis) and include Azerbaijanis of Iran. We speak a number of different languages and dialects, and have different religious beliefs. Our diversity, cultural heritage and shared Australian values bring us together. We are honoured to live in an inclusive and multicultural society of Australia — the country that has genuine respect for the rights of people from diverse linguistic, religious and cultural backgrounds.
The motions passed by the NSW government cast a very dark shadow over these human rights and can easily lead to ethnic conflicts, segregation and division within the Australian society. Such controversial motions may have further repercussions that may stretch beyond one particular conflict, subject area or indeed one community. We therefore urge you and every Australian politician, or senior official to learn about the conflict and rely on real evidence, rather than a foreign propaganda.
We would like to invite you for a meeting with our representatives to discuss our concerns and devise an action plan of what we do to protect people from multicultural disputes and threats on people’s livelihood and safety.
We thank you for your time, and look forward to hearing from you, to arrange a meeting in any preferred platform (face-to-face or online discussion) with you or your colleagues.
Below are the discussion points on the motion
1st Motion: “Notes the actions of Azerbaijan towards the Republic of Armenia as well as the Republic of Artsakh and it’s blatant disregard of international law by recently breaking their ceasefire agreement”.
The illegitimate “Republic of Artsakh”, internationally known as ‘Nagorno-Karabakh’ is not recognised by any United Nations member states, including Armenia. The UN Security Council Resolutions (853, 874 and 884) and United Nations General Assembly resolutions 49/13 and 57/298 refer to “Nagorno-Karabakh as a region of Azerbaijan”. The UN Security Council Resolutions are “legally binding decisions’’. These resolutions also call for the unconditional withdrawal of all Armenian forces from Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Council of Europe and European Union has condemned the self-proclaimed Government of Nagorno-Karabakh stating that their “elections cannot be legitimate”. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, represented by France, Russia and the United States, do not recognise Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent sovereign state. Neither does Armenia.
It is also important to know about the atrocities committed by the Armenian military forces in 2020, grossly breaking the ceasefire agreement set by the OSCE Minsk Group:
- From the period of 1990 to present day, Armenia has frequently provoked and sabotaged the Azerbaijan Armed Forces on the conflict line. On July 12th 2020, the Armenian army violated the cease-fire, in which 12 Azerbaijani soldiers, including a high-ranking officer, were killed, and 4 more soldiers were wounded. Armenia was called to ceasefire, however very soon after, they aimed at Azerbaijani civilians in the Aghdam and Dondar Kuscu villages, wounding civilians. During this period, the Armenian diaspora spread vile propaganda, claiming the ceasefire as occurring in the Armenian city of Tavush, and wrongfully calling Azerbaijan the aggressor.
- On the 27th of September 2020, Armenian army forces launched artillery attacks on the civilian populated border villages of Azerbaijan. Several civilians were killed or wounded during these attacks.
- Starting from October 4th 2020, Armenian Military Forces have been launching continuous missile barrages at the Azerbaijani cities of Ganja, Beylagan and Terter from the territory of Armenia. Previously, the Armenian Armed Forces fired rockets on the city of Terter and Horadiz in the Fizuli region, and Mingechevir, industrial city, which plays a key role in the area, due to its reservoir and key power plant. Separately, Armenia hit the Khizi-Absheron region near Azerbaijan’s capital Baku with mid-range missiles. Among the numerous casualties was a woman named Karina Grigoryan, an Azerbaijani citizen of Armenian ethnicity.
- Within 24 hours of declaring a humanitarian truce for Azerbaijan and Armenia to exchange prisoners, on October 11th 2020 the Armenian army attacked the second city of Azerbaijan, Ganja (which is 100km away from the conflict zone). The most recent civilian casualties include 10 killed, and more than 40 injured, 6 of them are babies and 16 of them are women, search and rescue efforts continue. The most recent missile that hit Ganja, destroyed a four-story, 24-apartment building, which, along with surrounding residential apartments and buildings, is left in ruins.
- On October 16th, the Armenian forces launched an attack on Azerbaijan’s Ordubad region, this area borders with Armenia and is away from the front line.
- On October 17th, the Armenian army launched a second attack during the night in the city of Ganja, and fourth-largest city of Mingachevir. So far in the city of Ganja, 13 civilians, including 3 children have been killed, 52 have been wounded, and 20 houses have been destroyed.
- UN released a statement condemning Armenian attack on Ganja: “The Secretary-General condemns all attacks on populated areas impacted by the conflict. The tragic loss of civilian lives, including children, from the latest reported strike on 16th of October 2020 in the city of Ganja is totally unacceptable”.
- UN urged that “parties should protect civilians and civilian infrastructure under international humanitarian law”.
- On October 28th 2020, the Armenian forces attacked the Azerbaijani city of Barda (situated away from the frontline), resulting in the death of 21 civilians, including a child, and at least 70 people seriously wounded. Both Amnesty International and Human Right Watch report verified the use of banned Smerch MLRS/cluster munitions being used by the Armenian forces. Belkis Wille (senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch) asserted that the “there’s a reason these brutal weapons are banned by international treaty, and using them in a city center shows fragrant disregard for civilian life and international law”.
- Through these provocations and attacks, Armenia is breaching the international law of warfare set out in the Geneva conventions, which regards attacks on persons not taking part in hostilities (civilians) as a war crime, not to mention attacking children.
2nd Motion: “Notes the serious concerns that have been raised from Armenian-Australians regarding the existential threat to the indigenous Armenian population of the Republic of Artsakh by this military action.”
The claim that Armenians are the “indigenous” population of the land of Nagorno-Karabakh is largely arguable. There’s a wide number of international sources, which deny such historic claims. As an example, a 1828 letter by the Russian Ambassador to Persia, Griboyedov, outlines the resettlement of Armenians from the lands of “Moslem landlords” (located in present day Iran) to “resettle the majority of new coming Armenians beyond Araks” (present day Azerbaijan).
Only comparatively recently, during the 20th Century, as a result of a Russian colonisation process over generations did Armenians come to form the majority in the highland areas of Karabakh (Nagorno Karabakh).
Other scholars who provide evidence around the Armenian migrations to the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the 20th century:
- Patrick Walsh, Great Britain against Russia in the Caucasus: Ottoman Turks, Armenians and Azerbaijanis caught up in Geopolitics, War and Revolution (2020)
- Sir John MacNeill, Progress and Present Position of Russia in the East
- Tadeusz Swietochowski, Russia and Azerbaijan
N. Shavrov, A New Challenge to the Russian Issue in Transcaucasia; Upcoming Sale of Mughan to Foreigners
In 1978 a monument was erected in the Azerbaijani city of Agdara to commemorate the ‘150 years’ of Armenians migration from the city of Maraga, (present-day Iran) to Nagorno-Karabakh. This monument has since been destroyed, to hide the evidence of their relocation:
Through much of the early 20th century, the Armenian Dashnak Party (extremist group) committed brutal massacres against Azerbaijanis with the purpose of ethnic cleansing of “Moslems and other people from their traditional lands”, in an effort to create the so-called “Magna Armenia” (Great Armenia). At the time, “only 21 percent of the population (of Nagorno-Karabakh) was Armenian and 73 percent Moslem”. The creation of the current Armenia, was established “with the killing or expulsion of nearly 500,000 Azeris from their traditional lands, which had been Erivan Khanate” (present day capital of Armenia, Yerevan).
Despite these historical facts, the people of Azerbaijan have always exercised tolerance towards their Armenian population and other ethnicities, and have valued the diversity of the Caucasus. Modern Azerbaijan is a home to many different ethnic groups including and not limited to: Lezgins, Armenians, Russians, Talysh, Avars, Turks, Tatars, Ukranians, Jews, Georgians and Kurds. Azerbaijan also has a largely secular culture, and promotes open freedom for people to practice their religion. There are; Armenian Apostollic Church, German Lutheran Church, Russian Orthodox church and a recently established Catholic church. In addition, around 30,000 Jews reside in Azerbaijan, and have Jewish synagogues.
3rd Motion: Condemns the actions of President Erdogan of Turkey and President Aliyev of Azerbaijan in their pursuit of a policy of Pan-Turkish nationalism which has previously led to genocide and which now threatens the Armenian population of Artsakh with ethnic cleansing.
We are surprised at the woeful ignorance and tremendous confusion of the authors of the third motion. By referring to a POTENTIAL ethnic cleansing of the so-called “Artsakh” population and totally ignoring the ACTUAL ethnic cleansing of the Azerbaijani Population of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia that happened within the last 30 years, NSW MPs explicitly demonstrated their bias and racial intolerance towards Australian Azerbaijanis. According to Human Rights Report 1993:
“During the winter of 1992, Armenian forces went on the offensive, forcing almost the entire Azerbaijani population of the enclave to flee, and committing unconscionable acts of violence against civilians as they fled. The most notorious of these attacks occurred on February 25 in the village of Khojaly. A large column of residents, accompanied by a few dozen retreating fighters, fled the city as it fell to Armenian forces. As they approached the border with Azerbaijan, they came across an Armenian military post and were cruelly fired upon… Azerbaijani officials estimate that about 800 perished. Armenian forces killed unarmed civilians and soldiers who were hors de combat, and looted and burned homes.”
Armenian forces killed unarmed civilians and soldiers who were hors de combat, and looted and burned homes.
As a result of that ethnic cleansing civilian Azerbaijanis, including women and children were killed in cold blood. Young babies were brutally slaughtered, and more than 1000 people were taken hostage. No one was held responsible for the atrocities and Armenia denies these events, spreading false propaganda, despite much evidence (which even includes HRW response to the Armenian government).
Just to demonstrate the scale of the ethnic cleansing that Azerbaijanis of Armenia and the territories occupied by the Armenian military, were subjected to, we want to bring to your attention a few excerpts from the independent source — the Human Rights Watch report on Azerbaijan:
“The old man cried as he told Human Rights Watch/Helsinki that the two women captives were raped before the eyes of the male captives. The off-duty soldiers and officers came into the room where all the captives were held and raped the women two or three times a day.
The old man cried as he told Human Rights Watch/Helsinki that the two women captives were raped before the eyes of the male captives. The off-duty soldiers and officers came into the room where all the captives were held and raped the women two or three times a day .The attackers did not pay attention to the shouting or cries of the women, nor to the pleas made on behalf of the young woman, age twenty-two, who had just delivered and then lost her first-born child a few days earlier. The captives were then taken by truck to Martuni in southeastern Karabakh. They were held in a police prison. The men and women were separated at this point, and the men taken to a cell where there were other Azeri captives, fifteen men in all. Some were soldiers captured on the Beilagan front, and they received the most severe beatings, sometimes from young Armenian drunks who entered the cell three or four times to taunt and beat the prisoners.”
Not only ethnic Azerbaijanis, but all Azerbaijani citizens who lived in the occupied territories lived through the Armenian army brutalities:
“Aleksandr, an eighty-two-year-old Don Cossack and invalid from the Second World War, was still in Agdam when it fell. He had lived in Azerbaijan since 1929. Aleksandr has the following memory of July 23, 1993, the day … Armenian troops entered Agdam, robbed him, and took him hostage: “I was at home, I’m rather sickly. I was in the kitchen boiling some tea when [there was an explosion] and glass flew all over the kitchen. I was already used to it, firing and firing, without end C sometimes from here, sometimes from there… Most people who had cars had already left… I ran [to the window] and saw the sidewalk. There were Armenian soldiers along the sidewalk, maybe twenty or twenty-five, with their guns trained all over our apartment building. They thought there were soldiers here. Then they opened up. I tried to hide in the corner. . .my hands were all bloody from the glass. I turned to run, and I got a small piece of shrapnel in the back.” Several soldiers started searching Aleksandr’s apartment building floor by floor. When they reached his apartment, they broke the door down with their rifle butts and entered. “They shouted at me “Hands up” and “Get out.” Then they started demanding money. I had 14,000 rubles, so I gave it to them. . . One took me into the kitchen and started to demand gold. “Give me the gold, give me the gold,” he shouted. I didn’t have any gold, so he took my military medals off, put them in his pocket laughing, and left.” The others then took me hostage. Aleksandr was held hostage in Agdam, in Yerevan, Armenia, and in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh, until his release through the ICRC in February 1994.”
Another passage that demonstrates how the intimidation strategy adopted by the Armenian military worked:
“Over the next several weeks, Karabakh forces systematically and methodically looted and burned Agdam and the villages surrounding it. According to witnesses, smoke rising from the Agdam area during August 1993 was visible for ten to twenty miles. A journalist in the village of Baghbanlar, south of Agdam, observed, “A soldier strutted out of a house carrying a porcelain sink and a wrench in one hand, while another filled the sidecar of his motorcycle with the contents of someone’s garage. A tanker truck wheeled into town and headed for the wine and cognac factory.” A Western diplomat active in the OSCE Minsk Group talks said that the burning and looting of Agdam was not the result of undisciplined troops, but was well-orchestrated plan organized by Karabakh authorities in Stepanakert.”
Here is an example of desperate survival efforts of the Azerbaijanis native to the territories bordering with Iran (no Armenians lived there). In their attempt to escape the atrocities of the Armenian Army, people tried to swim across the Araks river to the territory of Iran. Not everyone succeeded:
“Armenian troops also seized Qazaklar, a small village of about 200 homes on the Iranian border about four kilometers south of Horadiz station, on October 23. Elham Bairamov, a soldier serving in the Azerbaijani Ministry of Interior forces, said he was spending the last days of his twenty-day leave at home but had to flee when the Armenians advanced. We were making kebab for lunch just before the attack started. Some retreating Azerbaijani soldiers appeared and asked for some bread, which we gave them. They told us not to drink we had a bottle of vodka to go along with the kebab because we all would have to cross t he river soon. Those left in the village fled towards the river, first the civilians, then the soldiers. People were running and hiding, there was shooting. I swam across the river, maybe it was 3:00 P.M. Many drowned. In the confusion, Elham lost track of his father and went back to the Qazaklar to look for him. On the way he saw many dead Azeri civilians, including some who appeared to have been shot at close range. Qazaklar is only about half a kilometer from the river. I ran and hid as I made my way back. There were many dead bodies. There was one tractor that had been pulling a cart. It had been carrying three men, three kids, and two women. When I reached them they were all dead. It seemed they had been shot by rifles at fairly close range. I found their bodies close to the river. I never found my father.”
Sadly, today as well, the Armenian Military is getting away with atrocious killings of civilians. As of end 10 November, the Armenian missile attacks have wounded 305 and killed 91 civilians (of which 11 were children), destroyed homes as well as hospitals, schools and cultural-religious centres in the Azerbaijani cities of Ganja, Barda, Tartar, Mingachevir, Aghdam, Goranboy, Aghjabadi and Dashkasan, that are tens of kilometres away both from the battle zone (Nagorno-Karabakh) and Armenia, which is perfectly safe. International humanitarian law prevents the targeting of civilian infrastructure and religious or historical sites. Those attacks were condemned by EU, UN, Amnesty International and Human rights watch.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle said:
“The biggest single loss of life was on 28 October, when 21 people were reported killed and 70 others injured in a rocket attack on the Azerbaijani town of Barda, located some 30km from the area of active hostilities. The rockets, fired by Armenian forces from Nagorno-Karabakh, reportedly carried cluster munitions. Due to their effects, the use of cluster munitions in populated areas would be incompatible with the international humanitarian law principles governing the conduct of hostilities”.
As all the above evidence suggests, in this war, it is the Armenian Military Forces that have been targeting and threatening civilians, looting and destroying properties and have had no reverence or remorse for human lives.
Sadly, we have to state that producing unsubstantiated allegations of a potential ethnic cleansing, without acknowledging the evidence of the actual ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijani civilians over decades, making categorical statements that are largely questioned by the global scientific community, and rushing to accuse the elected heads of two modern sovereign states of Azerbaijan and Turkey in nationalistic policies is yet another manifestation of misinformed and highly prejudiced atmosphere dominating the NSW Parliament.
It is impossible to understand the logic of the MPs that choose to contradict International Law, the Australian Government’s position, historic facts (confirmed by International organizations and scholars) and common human values, without reflecting on the risks of inconclusive, biased and unjust evaluations, false claims and misjudgement of complex global issues to the peace of the Australian people.
4th Motion: “Calls on the Federal Government to condemn these attacks and advocate its support for the safety and security of the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh”.
This motion ignores one of the most critical facts of this conflict. In the early 1990’s Armenian forces aided by Russia’s (at the time Soviet) military, invaded and ethnically cleansed Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven neighbouring districts. As a result, around 900,000 Azerbaijanis and people of non-Armenian background became Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), 20,000 Azerbaijanis and people of other non-Armenian backgrounds were killed, and 50,000 were wounded or became disabled.
It would only be fair for the NSW Parliament to at least acknowledge that in their attempt to “protect” 150,000 Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) from a “potential” threat, Armenian Government and military have forcefully displayed almost one million Azerbaijanis from their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions of Azerbaijan.
All military operations were conducted within the internationally recognised borders of Azerbaijan and no civilians have been killed or injured in Armenia to date. This fact was also withheld from the NSW Parliament.
5th Motion: “Recognise the right to self-determination of all peoples including those of the Republic of Artsakh and calls on the Federal Government to also recognise the Republic of Artsakh as the only permanent solution to the conflict to avoid further attempts of such military aggression.”
Armenia attempts to camouflage its annexationist policy by appeals to the principle of the right of peoples to self-determination. However, according to the international law this principle can only be realized in a peaceful way and in accordance with the principle of territorial integrity. The right to self-determination does not imply unilateral right of cessation and should not lead to the disintegration of a sovereign and independent state.
The OSCE Helsinki Final Act 1975 Chapter 1 states the following: “The participating States will respect the equal rights of peoples and their right to self-determination, acting at all times in conformity with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and with the relevant norms of international law, including those relating to territorial integrity of States.” The Helsinki Final Act also outlines that: “the participating States will refrain in their mutual relations, as well as in their international relations in general, from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations and with the present Declaration”.
Therefore, the right to self-determination of the Nagorno-Karabakh region cannot be realised by violating the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
