tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2917258306050071919.post4460221787699201319..comments2023-10-29T07:18:58.112-07:00Comments on Reading the World: Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter's Adventures in an Oil-Rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet RepublicWebspinnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04833270936469390624noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2917258306050071919.post-83606669670667791642012-08-23T14:26:10.696-07:002012-08-23T14:26:10.696-07:00The Republic of Armenia and Armenian nationalists ...The Republic of Armenia and Armenian nationalists are trying to deceive the world community that Karabakh is his¬torically Armenian territory and that the illegal occupation (as it is according to international law and the United Nations) of Azerbaijani territory by Armenia is therefore justified.<br /> <br />It is immoral to justify the occupation of Azerbaijani territory, the murder of the peaceful Azerbaijani population, its ex¬pulsion from their lands and to make efforts to deceive the world community with their false and baseless claims, with absolutely no historical basis and any legal ground whatsover. <br /><br />The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh started in the end of 1980s by the armed assault of the Republic of Armenia against Azerbaijan, with the rise of the rabid and xenophobic Armenian nationalism against the neighboring nation and country of Azerbaijan and subsequent irredentism against the territory of Azerbaijan which was adopted as a state policy by the Republic of Armenia and which has resulted in deaths and injury of tens of thousands of Azerbaijani people in fighting and also in massacres of Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian troops, the most infamous of which is the Khojaly Massacre. More than a million Azerbaijani people became refugees and IDPs, and finally, the occupation of 20% of Azerbaijan’s territory by Armenia. Although an agreement establishing a cease-fire was signed in May 1994, this conflict has not been resolved on the basis of the main principles of international law within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan so far, the number of killed and injured as a result of regular violations of this cease-fire by Armenian troops at the cease-fire line continues to this day. <br /><br />Armenian nationalists continue to falsify the historical facts creating myths for justification of Armenia’s territorial claims against Azerbaijan. They try to convince both the Armenian and world community in the veracity of these falsified “historical facts”. This process of spreading these lies is actually continuing all over the world by the Armenian nationalists.<br /><br />Karabakh has never been an Armenian state in its entire history, until the Armenians captured it by brute force in 1992. Armenians love to claim they are descended from Hayk, the great-great grandson of the Biblical patriarch Noah. Because Noah’s Ark is supposed to have come to rest on Mount Ararat, Armenians conclude that this area around Mount Ararat must have been the original ancient Armenian homeland. This wild claim is based on nothing other than fables, certainly not on any scientific or archaeological evidence. <br /><br />The actual truth is that there were few Armenians in Karabakh in 1800, before Azerbaijan was invaded and annexed by the Russian Empire between 1801 and 1813 which was concluded by the Treaty of Gulistan (1813) after the defeat of Iran. The Treaty of Turkmenchay (1828) that ended the following war between the Russian Empire and Iran resulted in the additional annexation of territory of Azerbaijan. Armenians living in Iran and the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) were brought into Karabakh by the Russians starting in the early to mid-1800s and given free lands – often from the local Azerbaijani population. The reason of this movement was to create a stronghold of Christian Armenians as allies for Russia in Muslim Azerbaijan as a bulwark against the local Muslim Azerbaijani population and also against the Muslim powers Iran and the Ottoman Empire. According to the Russian documents of this period, there were ninety thousand people living in Karabakh. There was one large town and 600 villages, only 150 of them were Armenian. By the end of the nineteenth century and after the forced removal of most Azerbaijanis, the Armenians became a majority.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05641203817535248254noreply@blogger.com