Muhammad Asif Noor
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the Caucasian region is burning for decades now with worst human rights atrocities by Armenian occupied forces since the time of inception of this conflict. This July marks the 24th Anniversary of the invasion illegal occupation forces of Armenia to the Agdere region of Azerbaijan to the north of the Nagorno-Karabakh region. While this anniversary is reflective of the silence of the international community, world again witnessed the upsurge of aggression of Armenian forces against the innocent civilians of the Azerbaijan’s Fuzuli region. The forces violated the ceasefire and used the military force against the positions of Azerbaijan and hit the civilian population on as pure aggressor in any terms of international law. Pakistan is standing by the Azeri brothers and sisters in this time of duress as we are facing the similar wrath of Indian Occupied Forces in Kashmir region. International community especially those organizations advocating the human rights kept a mum over the killings and their silence is giving more encouragement to these aggressor states to act without any restrictions. This aggression and the occupation of Armenia proved as a major threat to the peace and development of not only Azerbaijan but for the entire region.
Various reports of international nature have pointed out the war crimes of Armenia in the region including grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions which means holding hostage; and killings of war prisoners. The resulting displacement of the people, who have fled to save their lives became refugees in the region, they are also posing as a threat to the political and strategic environment. They are facing worst kinds of human rights sufferings that one can imagine. According to one census report, around 250,000 Azeri refugees took solace in Azerbaijan due to fear of ethnic cleansing and killings at the time of ceasefire in 1994. In the context of the contemporary regional and international political environment where human security is the first priority of many nation states, such kind of inhumane treatment and conditions are not acceptable to any international law providing security to humans who are suffering and facing the brunt of conflicts and violence. Policy of genocide used by Armenian forces during the period of 1988 till 1989 has killed thousands of innocent people, they were either deported from their places of permanent resident or being subjected to worst kind of human rights violations. The conflict needs a just and righteous solution and people who are suffering looking towards the party of the conflict and also towards international community for support.
The history of the conflict dates back to the times of Russian Empire stretching its boarders around the region, for its ever increasing access of Russian access to the shores of Persian Gulf. Russian began exploiting the Armenian factor as early as eighteenth century. It is also believed that the conflict is rooted in expansionism and a policy of aggression aimed at expanding the territory of Armenia by force at the expense of the territory of another sovereign state. The policy of aggression continued to build up resulting in the violations of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan region. The hostilities of Armenia began to mount till the end of 1991 and in early 1992, the massacre of Khojaly, by Armenian forces in February 1992, caused the conflict to flare up into a war. More than 800 peaceful residents, including women and children, were slaughtered, raising voices and concern in the international community. Human Rights Watch called this as ” the largest massacre of the conflict”. Only crime of the residents of this beautiful town was that they were Azerbaijanis and nothing else. Thousands of people of Khojaly have been mercilessly killed or taken into hostage The Armenian aggression spread far beyond the administrative boundaries of the region to the rest of Azerbaijan. Between May 1992 and May 1994, six districts of Azerbaijan were occupied. This makes 20 per cent of the territory of Azerbaijan which has been annexed while, according to a report, almost 700 populated centers were destroyed. Number of refugees and displaced population is over 1 million. The conflict further escalated after the independence of Azerbaijan and Armenia. By the end of 1993, the conflict has caused thousands of casualties and refugees. Finally a ceasefire was reached in May 1994 through Russian negotiations. There were various initiatives put forward by the international and regional powers for a peaceful and just solution of Nagorno-Karabakh. One is creating of Minsk group which was initiated Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to encourage a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh established in 1992. The main objectives of the Minsk Process are as follows: Providing an appropriate framework for conflict resolution in the way of assuring the negotiation process supported by the Minsk Group; Obtaining conclusion by the Parties of an agreement on the cessation of the armed conflict in order to permit the convening of the Minsk Conference; Promoting the peace process by deploying OSCE multinational peacekeeping forces. The Minsk Group is headed by a co-chairmanship consisting of France, Russia and the United States. Furthermore, the Minsk Group also includes the following participating states: Belarus, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Turkey as well as Armenia and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has distrust on the Minsk group, co-chaired by Russia, France and US. Reason being is that there is large number of Armenian community living in these state and has put considerable pressure for derailing of the peace process. If that was not enough, another reason put forward by the Azerbaijani side is that the group does not put enough pressure on Armenia to return Nagorno-Karabakh territory to Azerbaijan, and of prolonging the negotiations indefinitely. The peace process initiated by the Minsk group has an unfortunate status as it has given a very little progress, till yet, moved few steps in the direction of peace.
Armenians are not willing to withdraw troops from Azeri territories until Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized as independent; Azerbaijan insists on its complete territorial integrity and demands the withdrawal of Armenian troops before it will discuss any other matters, including the eventual status of Nagorno-Karabakh. The locking of positions of both states has made a stalemate and lead of continue suffering of humanity of the region. President of Azerbaijan while once talking to media commented on the status of this dispute said ” The most important problem of the Azerbaijani people and the state remains the aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan, which marked the beginning of the Karabakh conflict. This conflict is still unresolved. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the greatest threat to peace and stability in the region” He further added that the OSCE, Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the OIC and other international organizations have adopted documents, which expressed support for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. But Armenia ignores the opinions of these organizations. For many years engaged in the settlement of the conflict the OSCE Minsk Group. With the mediation role of the countries like U.S., Russia and France where the group has organized various meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, the solution is not in sight. It is also very important to note here that because of the destructive position of Armenia, the conflict remains unresolved.
Most foreign actors have also positioned themselves between these extreme viewpoints, like for example; role of Russia, United States, France, Turkey and Iran has resulted into furthering complexity of the problem. The solution of this problem is based on the fact Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can be resolved by peaceful means, based on international law and within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.