ARMENIA-AZERBAIJAN, HISTORICAL ROOTS OF THE NAGORNO-KARBAG CONFLICT

      Towards the end of the 20th century, the socio-political processes in the territory of the former USSR were accompanied by conflicts in some republics that were subjects of the Soviet empire. Peaceful Azerbaijanis living in the current Republic of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh and its surrounding regions were the ones who suffered the most from these events. Armenia's claim to the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan resulted in the destruction of hundreds of settlements, the death of thousands of people, and the displacement of up to 1 million civilians from their homes. The roots of the tragedy of these people, who were displaced from the Azerbaijani lands occupied by the Armenian armed forces, go deeper into history.

         Although these areas, which are considered to be one of the ancient homelands and temples of rich culture of Azerbaijan, have become the arena of bloody wars from time to time, the real tragedy of these lands began at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century.

       Tsarist Russia, aiming to occupy the Caucasus, started wars with Iran for the sake of Azerbaijan. As a result, all the khanates located in the territory of Northern Azerbaijan were occupied by the Russian Empire. According to the Treaty of Turkmenchay signed between Tsarist Russia and Iran on February 10, 1828, North Azerbaijan became part of the Russian Empire, and South Azerbaijan became part of Iran.

      During the war of 1826-1828, 18 thousand Armenian families were moved from Iran and the southern territories of Azerbaijan to the South Caucasus. In the following two years, 40,000 Armenians from Iran and 84,000 from Turkey were resettled in Yelizavetpol and Iravan governorates.

Under the special patronage of the Russian tsar, the Armenians turned the local Azerbaijanis into refugees in a short period of time by force of arms and force.

      Thus, at the beginning of the 20th century, the demographic situation in these areas changed significantly.    

     The Armenians who settled in the new homeland soon fell into the dream of "Great Armenia from sea to sea". In 1890, with the establishment of the "Dashnaksutyun" organization in Tbilisi, Armenian nationalists began mass extermination operations against the Azerbaijani population throughout the Caucasus. These bloody events were especially prominent in 1905-1907. In those years, thousands of Azerbaijanis were killed in Zangezur, Karabakh and other regions.

     On May 27, 1918, with the dissolution of the Transcaucasian Seym, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia declared their independence.  

    This was when the victors of the world war were busy drawing new borders in this region. To prevent the spread of Bolshevism, the Western countries, which consider the existence of independent Caucasian republics necessary, stated that they would recognize the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic only if Yerevan was given to the Armenians as their capital. In order to protect its independence and be recognized by the world countries, Azerbaijan was forced to compromise.

    This caused the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis living in Iravan and nearby districts

     During the two massacres that took place in Transcaucasia in 1905-07 and 1918-20, nearly 2 million Azerbaijanis were killed by Armenians and forcibly expelled from their homes.

    In 1920, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was occupied as a result of the military aggression of Bolshevik Russia. Soviet power was established a little later in Dashnak Armenia, which suffered a heavy defeat in the war with Turkey.

    In 1920, Soviet Russia donated Zangezur region of Azerbaijan to Armenia, whose territory is small. In 1923, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Province was established in the territory of the Azerbaijan SSR in accordance with the interests of the Armenians.

   After the end of the Second World War, in November 1945, based on the petition of the Armenian government, the USSR government decided to transfer Armenians living abroad to Soviet Armenia. In 1946-48, 100,000 Armenians were accepted and settled in Armenia.

      The government of Armenia, citing difficulties in resettling Armenians relocated from abroad, appealed to Joseph Stalin with the proposal to relocate the Azerbaijani population living in this republic to the Azerbaijan SSR. According to the decision No. 4083 adopted by the Council of Ministers of the USSR on December 27, 1947, 144,654 Azerbaijanis were forcibly relocated from Armenia in 1948-1953.

When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, the Armenians and pro-Armenian forces gathered around him immediately took action and revealed the plan they had prepared for a long time to realize the idea of "Greater Armenia", which they had been carrying in their hearts for a long time. there was only one obstacle for the nationalists to realize their intentions - Heydar Aliyev, the first deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, the only Azerbaijani member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Armenian separatists and their patrons in the Kremlin, who were aware of Heydar Aliyev's harsh and sharp attitude to this issue since the time he was the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, managed to remove him from his position in 1987 as a first measure.

  The relocation of the headquarters of the "Dashnaksutyun" party, which is the main author and inspirer of the "Great Armenia from the sea to the sea" idea, from Paris to Yerevan, led to the extreme tension of the situation in the region.

   In February 1988, more than 250,000 Azerbaijanis living in Armenia were expelled from their homeland due to threats and terrorism by Armenian nationalists after the events carried out by the State Security Committee of the USSR and Armenians in the city of Sumgait. As a result of these ethnic cleansing operations, 216 people were killed, of which 57 were women and 23 were children.

  Thus, as a result of the ethnic cleansing policy of Armenian nationalists, which began in 1905, a total of 1.5 million Azerbaijanis were displaced and Armenia became a mono-ethnic state.

    Having completed the ethnic cleansing operation in Armenia, the Armenian nationalists concentrated all their forces in Nagorno-Karabakh and, together with the Armenian separatists living in this area, turned the territory of Azerbaijan into the main target for their terrorist activities.

   Starting from the summer of 1991, the war in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh began to take on an open character. The collapse of the USSR prompted the Armenian military units, which were already operating in the form of an organized army, to start large-scale military operations in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

   On the night of February 25-26, 1992, the Armenian armed groups in the Nagorno-Karabakh territory of Azerbaijan, the chief of staff of the Nagorno-Karabakh separatist forces Arkady Tomasyan, the Minister of Defense Serzh Sargsyan (the current president of Armenia), the former head of Armenia Robert Kocharyan and other Armenians under the leadership of their leaders and with the help of the 366th motorized rifle regiment located in Khankend of the former USSR, they carried out the crime of genocide against Azerbaijanis and Akhiskha Turks in the city of Khojaly

   During the occupation of Khojaly, 613 civilians, including 63 children, 106 women, and 70 elderly people, were killed with particular cruelty and torture, people's heads were cut off, eyes were gouged out, pregnant women's bellies were pierced with bayonets, just because they were Azerbaijanis. 487 people were maimed, 1275 residents were taken hostage and subjected to brutal torture. The fate of 150 hostages, including 68 women and 26 children, is still unknown.

  In 1991-1993, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's lands - the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and 7 regions adjacent to it, as well as 27 settlements of regions bordering Armenia. Up to 700,000 Azerbaijanis became forced refugees in their homeland, 20,000 were martyred, 50,000 were disabled, 200,000 were injured, and 4,853 were missing and hostages.

     As a result of military aggression, the fertile lands of a large part of Azerbaijan were occupied. More than 300 billion US dollars were damaged to the country's economy... All property left by the local population in the occupied territories was looted by the Armenians.

    Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs who were displaced from their homelands in 62 cities and districts of the republic, sheltering in more than 1,600 densely populated facilities, 12 tent camps, 3 settlements consisting of freight cars on railways, 16 Finnish-type settlements, dormitories, unfinished buildings, underground in drilling etc. they were forced to live in facilities with harsh and unbearable conditions.

    In addition to 50,000 Akhiskha Turks displaced from Central Asia in 1990, Russian citizens of Chechen origin, 11,000 people from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Palestine who intend to receive the status of "refugees" have found shelter in Azerbaijan.

   In order to eliminate the consequences of this humanitarian disaster, Heydar Aliyev, who came to power again in 1993, considered it important to solve the problem at the state level along with the help of international institutions.

In order to eliminate the consequences of this humanitarian disaster, Heydar Aliyev, who came to power again in 1993, considered it important to solve the problem at the state level along with the help of international institutions.

   One of the most important goals set in the organization of the State Oil Fund, which was established on the basis of the decree of our national leader Heydar Aliyev dated December 29, 1999, is to provide transparency on the oil revenues of Azerbaijan, as well as to provide assistance to the socially disadvantaged people of Azerbaijan, refugees and internally displaced persons. was aimed at improving their situation.

  As a result of Heydar Aliyev's policy, the first funds of Azerbaijan's oil, which entered the world market, were directed to the social protection of refugees and internally displaced persons, and the improvement of living conditions.

      Mr. Ilham Aliyev, a follower of the great leader Heydar Aliyev's policy, said before the presidential elections that if the people believe in me and support me, there will not be a single tent city left in Azerbaijan in the next five years. In December 2007, the country's president, who stayed true to his word, managed to cancel the last tent out of 12 tent camps in the territory of the republic. Thus, a total of 2.5 million sq. 82 new settlements with all socio-technical infrastructure consisting of 180,000 refugees and internally displaced persons were improved. The measures implemented as a result of all this and the cooperation with international humanitarian organizations are highly appreciated by the leaders of the influential organizations visiting Azerbaijan.

   In general, in 1993-2013, funds in the amount of 5.5 billion dollars were spent on solving the social problems of refugees and internally displaced persons. Out of it, 2.5 billion dollars are from the state budget, 1.9 billion from the State Oil Fund, and 1.1 billion from international humanitarian organizations operating in our country.

    Today, 49 international and 43 local humanitarian organizations provide assistance to the refugees, internally displaced and low-income population of Azerbaijan in various directions.

    Of the international humanitarian organizations, 10 represent UN agencies, 14 represent the United States, 14 represent European and 11 Eastern countries.

   Their transparent and free activity is coordinated from a single center. According to President Ilham Aliyev, if it were not for their activity in the early 1990s, this humanitarian disaster could have led to very bitter consequences.

    Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, noted during his visit to our country: "The work done by the President of Azerbaijan for all refugees and internally displaced persons in the country, including for international humanitarian organizations, is an example for most countries of the world facing similar problems. Our cooperation with the Government of Azerbaijan is at a very high level."

  As a commendable result of the purposeful policy implemented by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, on April 26, 2012, Azerbaijan was elected a full member of the Executive Committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, another prestigious international organization.

   In December 1992, the Republic of Azerbaijan acceded to the 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, and created a legal framework fully compliant with international norms regarding refugees and internally displaced persons.

   95 decrees and orders were signed by the President of the country, long-term State Programs were approved, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted 357 decisions and orders, and the Milli Majlis adopted 33 laws.

      In the occupied 20 percent of the territory of Azerbaijan, the infrastructure has been completely destroyed, contrary to the requirements of the Geneva Convention of 1949, the civilian population of Armenian nationality is brought from abroad and forcibly resettled in these territories. The Desert Assessment Mission of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, which includes representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, witnessed such situations again in October 2010 during their visit to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and 7 surrounding regions.

  Although 4 resolutions of the UN Security Council, decisions adopted by NATO PA, PACE, ICT and other organizations create a legal basis for resolving the conflict within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, Armenia does not want to follow any of them. Neither international organizations nor some circles that talk about the protection of human rights do not seem to see this.

     The reason for this is clear... Because the people who lead the Republic of Armenia today are participants in the bloody crimes committed against the peaceful Azerbaijani population, which ignited separatism in the Nagorno-Karabakh territory. The non-constructive position of these people, who came to power at the expense of the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of people, is affecting not only the refugee population of Azerbaijan, but Armenia as well. The reason for this is clear... Because the people who lead the Republic of Armenia today are participants in the bloody crimes committed against the peaceful Azerbaijani population, which ignited separatism in the Nagorno-Karabakh territory. The non-constructive position of these people, who came to power at the expense of the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of people, has put not only the refugee population of Azerbaijan, but also the citizens of the Republic of Armenia in a difficult situation. Armenia is isolated from all regional projects. The country's population lives in hunger and poverty. Although Armenian diaspora organizations presented this conflict to the world as a religious conflict 20 years ago, today it is clear how absurd an idea this is when looking at the list of countries that secretly and openly support them and closely cooperate with them.

  Today, the government of Azerbaijan is doing its best to meet the immediate needs of the displaced people. It takes measures for their work and security in the places where they currently live. But the world should know that the only solution to the problems of these Azerbaijanis is their return to their land. This is the right of every person. The government of Azerbaijan will make efforts to achieve this at any cost.