By Vugar Khalilov
September 27 marks the second anniversary of the beginning of the
44-day second Karabakh warfare.
In response to the frequent Armenian provocations and to
terminate the almost 30-year-long occupation of Karabakh and
surrounding territories, the Azerbaijani armed forces began
wide-ranging army assaults to regain the lands, which resulted
within the decisive and superb victory over the Armenian military inside
44 days.
All through the six-week-long blitzkrieg, the Azerbaijani military
regained a major a part of the occupied territories, that’s
over 300 cities and villages from Armenia’s 30-year-long disastrous
occupation, compelling the enemy to signal an act of capitulation,
and return again a number of districts according to Russia-brokered
peace deal.
By advantage of ongoing provocations alongside the contact line,
unsuccessful mediation efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group, and
Armenia’s refusal to adjust to worldwide legal guidelines, simply to call a
few, to place an finish to the occupation, a decisive warfare was not lengthy
in coming.
For the aim of understanding a number of the main causes that
triggered the second Karabakh warfare, it’s of big significance to
perceive the chronology of the Karabakh battle.
The beginning of the Karabakh battle
The energetic army part of the Karabakh battle began late
in 1988 with outright territorial claims and ensuing army
aggression and occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia.
The Nagorno-Karabakh battle, one of many longest-running within the
post-Soviet area, started in 1988, when ethnic Armenians in
Nagorno-Karabakh, backed by Armenians in Armenia and overseas, took
to the streets to name for secession from Soviet Azerbaijan to
merge with Armenia.
In early 1988, Armenia began a brand new part of outright
aggression towards Azerbaijan. The anti-Azerbaijan rhetoric and
actions gained momentum throughout Armenia and in a part of Karabakh
populated by Armenians.
In view of Moscow’s nonchalance about these occasions, Armenians
started widespread forceful deportations of Azerbaijanis from their
ancestral lands in Armenia below the tacit approval of the Soviet
regime and the direct involvement of the Armenian authorities. Over
250,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis have been coerced to depart their native
lands in Armenia and a number of other thousand of them have been brutally
killed.
In February 1988, Armenians in Azerbaijan’s historic Karabakh
area launched protests, which progressively switched to clashes with
native Azerbaijanis within the area to coerce Moscow by way of influential
Armenians in Moscow to permit Karabakh’s merger with Armenia.
Semi-active, ill-designed experiments and the dearth of
time-tested experiences on find out how to cope with and address ethnic
conflicts and territorial claims led to the appliance of dozens
of strategies all of which later turned out to be anti-Azerbaijani
with the final word purpose of misappropriating lands that belonged to
Azerbaijan for hundreds of years.
Alas, when the Soviet Union fell aside, tensions exploded right into a
full-fledged warfare, and by 1994, Armenia had virtually occupied
Nagorno-Karabakh and 7 adjoining districts, forcing a million
Azerbaijanis to flee their ancestral homeland.
From 1994 by 2020, sporadic violent clashes went on with
the usage of cutting-edge applied sciences, comparable to assault drones and
heavy armament within the 2016 four-day warfare, together with the involvement
of particular operations forces.
At a time when transient skirmishes have been common events, Armenia
and Azerbaijan have been pursuing their very own targets, that’s, Yerevan
wished to retain the occupied land by coercing Baku to reconcile
with the true state of the affairs on the bottom in return for a
peace deal, whereas the latter was making ready for a closing and decisive
warfare to regain personal territories by the combat-ready military
motivated by the will to finish the invasion.
Armenian-committed atrocities towards
civilians
Through the first Karabakh warfare (1988-1994), the Armenian invaders
dedicated a sequence of systematic acts of genocide and warfare crimes
towards harmless Azerbaijanis, violating each army and
worldwide human rights ideas by brutally murdering
civilians and destroying all historic monuments within the
Azerbaijani settlements.
The mass graves found in Karabakh’s completely different components,
following the 44-day warfare in 2020, are vivid examples of warfare crimes
dedicated by the Armenian armed forces towards the Azerbaijani
folks.
The Khojaly genocide on February 26, 1992, is seen because the
pinnacle of the systematic crimes and atrocities dedicated by
Armenia towards Azerbaijanis. Some 613 Azerbaijanis, together with 63
kids, 106 girls, and 70 elders have been brutally murdered on the
ethnic floor in Khojaly District.
Previous to the Khojaly genocide, Armenians dedicated the worst
tragedy in Khojavand, Asgaran Disticts. The Garadaghli genocide was
a stain on humanity, and heinous atrocities have been dedicated in
Akhullu, Tugh, Salaketin, and Edilli villages on the finish of the XX
century. A sequence of horrible acts have been dedicated in Gazakh’s
Baghanis-Ayrim village.
In October-November 1991, Armenians burned, destroyed, and
plundered over 30 settlements within the mountainous space of Karabakh,
together with Tugh, Imarat-Garvand, Sirkhavand, Meshali, Jamilli,
Umudlu, Garadaghli, Karkijahan, and different villages.
On the evening of April 7-8, 1992, the Armenian armed forces, with
the assist of the separatist Armenian gangs within the former
Nagorno-Karabakh area, attacked Aghdaban and Chaygovushan
villages.
On March 27, 1993, the Armenian terrorists invaded Aghdaban for
the second time by besieging and razing it to the bottom. The
second occupation of Aghdaban meant the whole occupation of
Kalbajar by Armenia. Kalbajar was besieged on all sides and
utterly occupied by Armenian armed forces on April 2, 1993.
Following the occupation of Azerbaijan’s Kalbajar District in
1993, the United Nations Safety Council adopted 4 resolutions
(822, 851, 874, and 884) urging Armenia to withdraw its army
forces from Azerbaijan’s internationally acknowledged areas
instantly.
Sadly, these resolutions remained unfulfilled for 28
years attributable to an absence of strain on the aggressor and the
utility of double requirements by world powers, particularly the
OSCE Minsk Group co-chair international locations, which have been obliged to resolve
the battle inside Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
Peace talks imitation
The OSCE Minsk Group was established in 1992 by the Convention
on Safety and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), now referred to as the
Group for Safety and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to
promote a peaceable, negotiated decision to the battle between
Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The group led by co-chair international locations of France, Russia, and the
United States, additionally included Belarus, Finland, Germany, Italy,
Sweden, Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
On Might 5, 1994, the Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian
representatives signed the Bishkek cease-fire protocol to terminate
hostilities and implement a ceasefire that might go into impact on
Might 12, with Russia appearing because the mediator. Though there have been
remoted incidents of violence within the space, all events agreed to
uphold the provisions of the ceasefire.
The influential Armenian Diaspora with cash in all three
co-chair international locations – Russia, France, and america – as
nicely because the strategic partnership between Russia and Armenia raised
issues concerning the impartiality of the Minsk Group mediators.
Through the 28 years of the negotiations course of, numerous
conferences have been held between Azerbaijan and Armenia by way of the Minsk
Group, which yielded no tangible outcomes. Representatives of
Armenia, Azerbaijan, France, Russia, and america got here
collectively in Key West, Florida, and Paris in early 2001. Nonetheless,
the discussions at Key West have been principally saved below wraps and did
not yield outcomes.
Each the Armenian and the Azerbaijani delegations mentioned the
position and significance of the Minsk Group in peace discussions on
October 7, 2002, on the CIS summit in Chisinau. The events
criticized the ineffective OSCE mediation, which lasted 10 years at
that time.
Below the auspices of the co-chairs, Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan met in Bern,
Switzerland, on December 19, 2015. The presidents affirmed their
willingness to proceed engaged on a decision and backed
continued efforts to decrease the chance of violence.
On October 16, 2017, the Minsk Group had the final assembly
between Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan in Geneva. The presidents
determined to do the mandatory measures to strengthen the dialogue
course of and reduce tensions alongside the road of contact.
On account of Armenia’s unconstructive angle, the entire
above-mentioned encounters between the leaders have been merely
imitations of peace negotiations and fell nicely wanting reaching
any significant progress within the peaceable decision of the
battle.
Armenia’s persistent and harmful actions, in addition to its
armed forces’ violent provocations towards Azerbaijan, rendered the
army escalations imminent.
4-day April 2016 flare-up
One of many superb pages in Azerbaijan’s Karabakh warfare historical past,
the 2016 April battles, later dubbed the four-day warfare, bolstered
the fight spirit of the nationwide military and paved the best way for the
final victory of the Azerbaijani military over Armenia in 2020.
The four-day flare-up proved the dedication and resoluteness
of the Azerbaijani folks and the state that the occupation would
not be tolerated and be restored at any value. 4 years later, the
Azerbaijani Army rewrote historical past and restored the nation’s
territorial integrity by the fierce battles on the
battlefields.
On April 2, 2016, intensive artillery shelling of Azerbaijani
frontline positions and settlements by the Armenian armed forces
made the counter-offensive inescapable. Because of four-day
battles, the Azerbaijani military liberated a number of
strategically-important heights and restored management over 2,000
hectares of land.
The positions within the course of Tartar District’s Talish
village and Sugovushan settlement, Jabrayil District’s Lalatapa
peak, and Jojug Marjanli village, in addition to Goranboy District’s
Gulustan village, have been cleared of enemy forces.
The breakdown of Armenia’s protection line, which had beforehand
been depicted as an “impassable barrier” in Azerbaijan’s previously
occupied territories, was a strategically important victory. Many
folks, together with native and international consultants, noticed the April battles
as a costume rehearsal for the 44-day battle in 2020.
The operation carried out in response to Armenian provocations,
was essential in revealing the steadiness of forces, clarifying the
geopolitical panorama, and the vary of pursuits of regional
powers.
The established order, e.g. the occupation of Azerbaijan’s territories,
utterly glad Armenia and many of the main world and
regional powers. Certainly, the April battles is likely to be considered as an
try to deliver the invading Armenia to peace.
Pashinyan-initiated provocations
Following the 2018 regime change in Armenia, hopes have been excessive for
a peaceable decision of the battle since new Prime Minister
Nikol Pashinyan repeatedly alluded to “peace acceptable to all
sides” in his early days in workplace.
Nonetheless, his subsequent inflammatory rhetoric and conduct, such
as unlawful journeys to Karabakh, notably to the historic
Azerbaijani metropolis of Shusha, in addition to his declaration that
Karabakh – Azerbaijan’s internationally acknowledged territory – is
a part of Armenia, stymied peace talks and compelled Azerbaijan into the
44-day warfare.
Furthermore, the Armenian armed forces’ army motion towards
Azerbaijan’s Tovuz District, distant from the Karabakh theater of
warfare in an try to endanger Azerbaijan’s vitality communication
hyperlinks that cross by the territory, was the ultimate straw that
broke Azerbaijan’s persistence.
Armenia, guided by the then protection minister’s rhetoric that the
occupation of latest territories would compel Azerbaijan to compromise
laid naked the brand new authorities’s intention below the guise of
democratic authorities.
Tovuz clashes
The Tovuz battles of July 2020 have been a turning level on the highway
to the Patriotic Battle, through which the Azerbaijani armed forces
triumphed spectacularly.
Likewise, the gorgeous April battles of 2016, the triumphant
Gunnut operation of 2018, and the Tovuz battles of 2020
characterised the Azerbaijani military’s march to victory.
Through the five-day July hostilities, which started with the
blocking of the following sabotage of the Armenian military, the Azerbaijani
military dealt a extreme blow to the enemy and thwarted its evil
objective.
On July 12, 2020, Armenian army forces violated the
ceasefire within the course of Tovuz District on the
Azerbaijani-Armenian state border, shelling Azerbaijani positions
and trying to launch an assault. Nonetheless, on account of the
enough preparations taken, the enemy was struck a major
blow and was pressured to retreat with losses.
Thus, the makes an attempt of the Armenian armed forces to seize the
Azerbaijani military positions have been resolutely prevented and no
territorial loss was allowed.
On July 14, Armenian army forces opened fireplace from
large-caliber weaponry and artillery on the villages of Aghdam,
Alibayli, and Dondar Gushchu. On that day, Maj-Gen Polad Hashimov,
and Col Ilgar Mirzayev of the Azerbaijan Army, who have been on the
frontline, in addition to 5 servicemen, have been heroically martyred
whereas stopping the enemy assault. This demonstrated to the world
the true patriotism of the overall and different high-ranking officers
of the Azerbaijan military, who heroically carried out their duties on
the frontline.
On the identical day, retribution towards the enemy was resumed. When
the state of affairs turned tight, the opposing facet, as is customary,
started firing into the residential areas. A local of Tovuz’s Aghdam
village was killed on account of artillery fireplace from Armenian
troops.
On July 17, the Tovuz space was comparatively peaceable, however tensions
remained as an entire.
Because of the Tovuz battles, 12 Azerbaijani army
personnel and one civilian have been killed. The engagements, nonetheless,
have been one more demonstration of the Azerbaijani military’s nice
experience. Over 100 Armenian troopers have been killed and army
tools was destroyed by the Azerbaijani military models in the course of the
battles.
The battles of July 2020 have been one of the vital essential steps on
the trail to the Patriotic Battle, one of the vital magnificent chapters
in Azerbaijan’s historical past. After these engagements, the valiant
Azerbaijani Army, which performed a large-scale counter-offensive
operation to forestall the enemy’s subsequent provocation, destroyed the
Armenian armed forces within the 44-day warfare and liberated the
territories from occupation.
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