What can Italy do to restore peace between Azerbaijanis and Armenians after the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh? He answers the ambassador of Azerbaijan in Italy, Mammad Ahmazada, in this exclusive interview he granted to FIRSTonline.
“Azerbaijan – he says – is the main supplier of oil to Italy and thanks to Azerbaijani gas, which will arrive in Italy with the Southern Gas Corridor, Italy will play the role of energy hub in Europe. Our country is the first importer of Italian products in the southern Caucasus, and Italian exports to Azerbaijan are higher than Italy's total bilateral trade with other countries in the region. In recent days we have witnessed attempts by Armenian military forces to strike strategic infrastructures of Azerbaijan. Damage to energy pipelines, possible due to continuous attacks by Armenia in the heart of Azerbaijan's geo-strategic areas, would also be harmful to Italy's economic interests”.
“All of this – adds the ambassador – proves that Italy should be much more actively involved in forcing Armenia to peace. We therefore expect that Italy will play a leading role within the international community and the Minsk Group, of which it has been a member since the beginning and of which it was also its first president, to request Armenia to cease its aggression against Azerbaijan and withdraw its troops from Azerbaijani territories, which is the only way for stability, peace and coexistence to reign in the region.”
And yet you are accused by the president of Armenia of being the aggressors in the latest conflict in Nagorno, encouraged by Turkey: how do you respond?
“We respond with facts, which clearly demonstrate that the aggressor is Armenia, which has been conducting military aggression against Azerbaijan for 30 years, militarily occupying 20 percent of the territory of our country, where it has committed a cleansing against all Azerbaijanis. But all this was not enough for Armenia and its leadership, which in recent months has started talking about new wars to conquer new territories of Azerbaijan. The armed forces of Armenia first launched a military strike at dawn on 27 September both on Azerbaijani military positions along the front line and on densely populated civilian settlements in the vicinity of the front line. Notwithstanding the agreement reached at a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia in Moscow, mediated by the Russian Federation, for a humanitarian ceasefire from 12:00 on October 10, 2020, the 'Armenia continues its murderous fire against our military and against Azerbaijani civilians. Immediately after the humanitarian ceasefire was established, Armenia's armed forces fired on Agdam and Tartar districts of Azerbaijan. On the night of October 11, Ganja, Azerbaijan's second largest city, located far beyond the front line, was hit by Armenian Armed Forces cluster rockets, and images of the injured city went around of the world, perhaps opening the eyes of the international community to the real responsibilities of the current events. As a result of Armenia's intentional and targeted shelling of settlements from 27 September until today, 47 people, including three children, have been killed to date and 222 people have been injured.
So it's not true that Turkish F-16 fighters are participating in the attack?
“As we have repeatedly repeated in recent weeks, Azerbaijan and Armenia are the only parties to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Turkey is an important friend and partner for Azerbaijan, but the support it is offering us now is purely moral. Turkish F-16s came to Azerbaijan during joint military training and remained in our country. But I'm on the ground, not in the air. None of them took part in the ongoing military operations. Turkey is not involved in these military operations. There are no Turkish troops in our country. With a population of 10 million, and a trained and equipped army, Azerbaijan has no need for military aid. To strengthen our defense capabilities, we purchase weapons of Turkish, Russian, Israeli and all possible suppliers at market prices and we have always said so. Instead, I have questions for the international community: where did Armenia, a poor country with no financial resources and drowning in debt, get so much money to buy all this military equipment? Most likely they got it for free. It is no secret that in the last two months before the fighting began, Armenia imported more than 1.000 tons of military goods from various sources. Our drones alone have caused $1 billion in damage to Armenia's military equipment."
Another hot topic is the involvement of jihadists from Syria: are you aware of this?
“My country has also intervened on this issue several times: this is just one of the many fake news that we are faced with on a daily basis. Again there is not a single piece of evidence that can corroborate this lie. While the army of Armenia is suffering heavy defeats in the battlefield, the Armenian leadership is spreading these falsehoods. Because it does not want to recognize the superiority of the Azerbaijani army and at the same time tries to save face to defend itself against criticism of its incapacity. On the other hand, the goal of the Armenian side in spreading this false information is to give a religious content to the conflict, and thus to raise public opinion in the Western world in favor of it. The president of Armenia instead confirmed the use of soldiers from Lebanon and Syria in the ranks of the Armenian army. Among these foreign fighters there are also members of international terrorist organizations such as ASALA - Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, founded in the Middle East. We expect condemnation from the international community, which however is slow to arrive".
What is your reconstruction of the war between Azerbaijanis and Armenians since Gorbachev's perestroika?
“It would be appropriate to go further back in the years to deepen the background that caused the Nagorno Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Nagorno Karabakh is the mountainous part of Karabakh, historical territory of Azerbaijan. The name itself comes from two Azerbaijani words: “gara” – black and “bag” – garden. From ancient times until the occupation of the Tsarist Empire in 1805 with the Treaty of Kurakchai, this region was part of several Azerbaijani states, most recently the Karabakh Khanate. In 1828, the signing of the Treaty of Turkmanchay, at the end of the Russia-Iran war, was followed by a massive transfer of Armenians to the South Caucasus, in particular to the territories of the Azerbaijani khanates of Irevan (present-day Yerevan, the capital of Armenia) and Karabakh . The migratory flow continued until the beginning of the XNUMXth century. Subsequently, the state of Armenia was created in the territories of Azerbaijan and expanded during the Soviet period at the expense of the Azerbaijani land area. In 1923, the autonomous province of Nagorno Karabakh was created in Azerbaijan, the administrative boundaries of which were defined so that Armenians were the majority ethnic group. Instead, Armenia not only did not recognize autonomy for the Azerbaijani minority in Armenia, but promoted a climate of intolerance and did everything to get rid of the local Azerbaijani community. We can say that the roots of the conflict are therefore in the transfer of Armenians to Azerbaijani territories, as well as in the decision to create an autonomous province in the mountainous part of Azerbaijan's Karabakh region. In 1988 Armenia initiated new territorial claims against Azerbaijan, this time for Azerbaijan's Nagorno Karabakh region, and at the same time all the remaining Azerbaijanis (more than 250) in Armenia were deported from their native lands. After the dissolution of the USSR, Armenia initiated military aggression against Azerbaijan, occupying 20% of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territories, including Nagorno Karabakh region and seven adjacent districts, carrying out ethnic cleansing against all Azerbaijanis (more than 750) in these territories and also by carrying out war crimes and genocide against Azerbaijani civilians in the city of Khojali. Today we have more than a million Azerbaijani refugees and displaced persons and there is not a single Azerbaijani left in the occupied territories. Armenia, to cover up its aggression, has created an illegal puppet regime called the “Republic of Nagorno Karabakh” in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, which is not recognized by any country, including Armenia itself.
For the first time Armenia is asking the international community to recognize the independence of the Nagorno republic because this "would prevent a new genocide of the Armenians": what do you think?
“I think this is yet another provocation by Armenia's political leadership, which in recent years has done everything to undermine the negotiation process and perpetuate the status quo. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has done everything to get this situation right, from declaring Nagorno Karabakh to be Armenia, to trying to change the format of the negotiations. Now this new provocation. But the so-called "Nagorno Karabakh republic", is an illegal puppet regime created by Armenia to cover its aggression, in the internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan, it is no coincidence that it is not recognized by any state in the world, including Armenia itself. In recent weeks, Azerbaijan's army has been fighting on its sovereign territory, liberating its occupied territories and giving back to the million Azerbaijani refugees expelled from their lands the hope of returning to their homes and visiting the graves of their families. It is the Azerbaijani people who suffered a veritable genocide by the armed forces of Armenia in Khojaly, between February 25 and 26, 1992, in which 613 Azerbaijani civilians were killed. Armenia has also carried out an ethnic cleansing of all Azerbaijanis in the occupied territories. We report new crimes since September 27 by Armenia, which fired cluster rockets at our civilian settlements, including Ganja, Azerbaijan's second largest city, causing, as reported, 47 civilian deaths and 222 Azerbaijani injuries . Armenia, which committed all this, has no right to speak of genocide."
What do you ask of the international community?
“We demand from the international community an open condemnation of Armenia's military aggression against Azerbaijan and pressure on Armenia for an immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of its armed forces from our territories, as also required by the four resolutions of the Council of Security of the United Nations. Because the presence of the armed forces of Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is the main source of security threat in the region”.
And to return to Italy?
“Italy and Azerbaijan are strategic partners as well as friendly countries. Azerbaijan's share in Italy's total trade with South Caucasus countries is 92%. There is a strong presence of Italian companies in Azerbaijan. Over the last few years, the contracts awarded by Italian companies in Azerbaijani projects amount to over 10 billion euros. Furthermore, we are a strategic bridge for Italian companies to access Central Asian markets. The signing of the Joint Declaration on the strengthening of the multidimensional strategic partnership, between President Ilham Aliyev and President Giuseppe Conte last February in Rome during the state visit of our President, sanctioned a real leap in quality going beyond the energy dimension of the partnership . In this regard, this joint statement also confirms the mutual support for the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and internationally recognized borders of both sides, as well as the inadmissibility of acts of aggression in interstate relations. The document underlines that the parties support a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, based on the fundamental principles of the Helsinki Final Act, in particular sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of international borders, as enshrined in the relevant documents and decisions of the UN and the OECD”.
But documents are one thing, reality another. The war does not stop, the victims continue to increase. As happened in Ganija just the other night: a heavy bombardment by the armed forces of Armenia against the second Azeri city caused more civilian casualties.
