in Russian – https://aga-tribunal.info/appeal-27-7-2020/

Open Appeal to the world public

Continuation of the “Proclamation of 132” of July 27, 1990 on the protection of civilization from savage barbarity

On July 27, 1990, 132 prominent scientists and public figures addressed an Open letter to the world public regarding the deliberate atrocities committed by the authorities of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Rrepublic (Az. SSR) against the Armenian population. The authors of the Letter compared these egregious crimes to the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey. However, the 30 years that have passed since the Letter have repeatedly proved that Azerbaijan actually continues the policy of exterminating the Armenian people. Azerbaijan was created by Turkey in 1918 immediately after the Yeghern (Armenian Genocide) committed by the Young Turks in 1915. The regular Turkish troops that invaded the South Caucasus at that time destroyed the Armenian population along their entire nearly 1,000-kilometer promotion route to Baku to establish a satellite state. Only in Baku itself in September 1918, the Turkish army, along with local Turks (Caucasian Tatars), massacred more than 30 thousand Armenian civilians. Later, in 1921, as a result of the conspiracy of the Bolsheviks (carriers of the globalist idea of world revolution) and Turkey, the territories of Nakhichevan and Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) were forcibly torn away from Armenia in favor of Soviet Azerbaijan. This is the root of the conflict that has been going on for more than a century.

The 1990 Appeal was a tocsin condemning Azerbaijan’s atrocities against civilization. The authors of “Proclamation of 132” hoped that the powers responsible for the state of the world order after the collapse of the USSR would take steps to pacify the forces of evil in this part of the planet. But it didn’t happen. In 1991-1992, after the collapse of the USSR, the Republic of Azerbaijan was unlawfully recognized within the borders of the Az. SSR, that is with Nagorno Karabakh, which declared independence in 1991 in full accordance with the laws of the USSR and international law.

Azerbaijan was not only not punished for the pogroms and exile from Az. SSR the largest state-forming autochthonous Christian community. Azerbaijan was encouraged by its recognition with the territories of Nakhichevan and Nagorno Karabakh that did not belong to it under international treaties. Nakhchivan does not belong to the present Republic of Azerbaijan under the Kars Treaty of 1921. Nagorno Karabakh also does not belong – under a package of legal documents, including the USSR Law of April 3, 1990, from which it follows that since September 1991 the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (Republic of Artsakh) exercises state power in territories legally not owned by the newly formed Republic of Azerbaijan. Recognition of Azerbaijan within the borders of Az. SSR was understood in Baku as a permission to continue the extermination and exile of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh, now under the cover of international recognition of the borders assigned to Azerbaijan from outside. Azerbaijan borders were assigned right from outside, because in the XX century in the South-East of the Caucasus, no state with the name “Azerbaijan” existed by an act of self-determination, so that we can talk about the legitimacy of its borders.

The fact that Azerbaijan’s numerous atrocities remain ignored in the process of resolving the Karabakh conflict is incomprehensible to the mind. But the consequences of such indulgence are obvious, though the danger of such indifference and silence was mentioned in the final phrase of the 1990 Appeal.

Among Azerbaijan’s atrocities after 1990 there are:

• the war waged against Nagorno Karabakh,
• the massacre of Meskhetian Turks by the Popular front of Azerbaijan near Agdam, who left Khojalu along the humanitarian corridor left by the Armenians,
• destruction in the face of the civilized world of medieval stone crosses (khachkars) in the New Jugha,
• the heroization of Ramil Safarov, who killed an Armenian officer in his sleep in Budapest,
• support for ISIS

• and other.

The victims of arbitrariness of Azerbaijan are not only Armenians, but also other autochthonous peoples of the republic who have gone into the national underground from forced Turkization. Azerbaijanis themselves are also victims of the spirit of intolerance and hate speech condemned by the UN. Azerbaijanis themselves are also victims of the spirit of intolerance and hate speech that is being condemned by the UN. Like the authors of the “1990 Proclamation”, we see no difference between the extermination of Armenians in Turkey and Azerbaijan, the forcible Turkization of autochthonous peoples in these countries, or the destruction or appropriation of the material and cultural heritage of other peoples. Thousands of churches and monuments of Armenian culture have been wiped off the face of the earth as a result of the ongoing cultural genocide (culturocide) in both Turkey and Azerbaijan. The next and far from the last act of culturocide due to the silence of the world community was in July 2020 – the impudent transformation into a mosque of the famous Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. It seems that the world is dealing with the same criminal in two persons, obsessed with the disease of aggressive expansionism and annexationism. A special consequence of the persecution of Armenians in Azerbaijan has been more than half a million Armenian refugees scattered in dozens of countries around the world, who have not received any moral, material, or political compensation.

We, the signatories of this Appeal, 30 years after the historic “Proclamation of 132” decided to continue its call, emphasizing that the issues raised there have not only not been resolved, but have also worsened. As noted in the Proclamation, there is still “a real threat of extermination to the Armenian population… of Nagorno Karabagh”. We call on the OSCE and the Minsk group co-chairs to apply the principle of territorial integrity to Azerbaijan not a priori, but in accordance with the real essence of the conflict. We call on the OSCE to consider the issue of recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in the context of the fundamental right of peoples to self-determination, rather than in the context of short-term political expediency.

Organizations and politicians who cover up Azerbaijan’s century-long crimes, who are indifferent and do not condemn the committed and planned crimes against humanity, become accomplices. Especially since we are talking about the Republic of Artsakh – the de facto Bastion of peace, of the rights of autochthonous peoples, the Bastion of culture, Christianity and democracy in the key region of the cradle of world civilization – the Armenian highlands.

Appendix:

• Crimes committed by Azerbaijan before the end of 1990
• «Proclamation of 132» from July 27, 1990
• Crimes committed by Azerbaijan after 1990

July 27, 2020