HEARD THE SONG BUT GOT IT WRONG

Seven cities and hundreds of villages turned into ruins, thousands of destroyed graves, tombstones pulled apart, human skulls scattered around a vast territory... World community has been truly shocked when Azerbaijan showed the scale of destruction in Garabagh and Eastern Zangezur committed during the 30 years of Armenian occupation. It seemed that it would be unnecessary to prove what was the evil Azerbaijan had fought during 44 days of war. At the same time, it was naïve to think that after seeing this terrible show, the world community would immediately side with truth and forget about double standards.

But it turned out that it was not about the double standards only. On March 10, the European Parliament adopted a resolution entitled On the Destruction of Armenian Cultural Heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, which we consider as an apogee of cynicism. Is it still necessary to describe the content of the document when its title speaks for itself?

The resolution is based on disinformation, Aide to the President of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev limited himself to a diplomatic jargon describing the event. “We have seen a lot of disinformation during the 44-day war. Armenia claimed that there were mercenaries in Azerbaijan. When we asked for evidence, they failed to provide them. Fake news is not only in the media, but also in politics. The resolution adopted by the European Parliament is also based on such disinformation. We must fight against it,” Mr. Hajiyev said.

The reaction of the Azerbaijani parliament was immediate. "This resolution is based entirely on misinformation disseminated by Armenia and the Armenian lobby in the European Parliament. And it distorts the realities created as a result of the thirty-year occupation of Azerbaijani lands, including the vandalism of our cultural heritage in these areas. The resolution also casts a doubt on the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, while undermining efforts to bring lasting peace and stability to the region. Moreover, it contains a number of dangerous elements and undermines the global efforts focused on the eradication of religious and racial discrimination and intolerance,” reads the statement of the Milli Majlis adopted on March 11.

Questions for MEPs

In fact, the EP resolution is non-binding and only advisory in nature. Yet it is sad to see its adoption. The mere mentor-like tone of the resolution and unsubstantiated accusations of Azerbaijan's destruction of certain monuments raise many questions for European lawmakers.

Has any international mission ever conducted monitoring in Garabagh to establish that Azerbaijan was destroying any monuments? Why have the churches, which cause so much concern in Europe, survived and remained intact under the control of Azerbaijan for centuries before the occupation of Garabagh and Eastern Zangezur by Armenia?

For information of European deputies, the fact of occupation Azerbaijani lands was confirmed by the same European Parliament back in May 2010 in resolution №2009/2216(INI) entitled The need for an EU strategy for the South Caucasus. In June 2020, the European Parliament adopted another resolution №2019/2209(INI), which contains a reference to its own earlier decision on the occupation of Azerbaijani lands.

From bad to worse?

Do they mean Azerbaijan has liberated its lands only to destroy its own cultural heritage? Does it ever sound logical?! Had Azerbaijan not treated the churches mentioned in the EP resolution as its own heritage, they would not exist today—just as the medieval Irevan Fortress, the Sardar Palace, mosques and other monuments of Azerbaijani architecture no longer exist in Armenia. Neither do the ancient tombstones in many Azerbaijani cemeteries in Armenia after the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis. You cannot find any Azerbaijani geographical names on the map of modern Armenia either.

Similarly, the now liberated lands of Garabagh and Eastern Zangezur mostly remain in ruins. European journalists and diplomats have been eyewitnesses to the unprecedented scale of destruction and vandalism in these territories.

This brings back memories of recent confessions of the Armenian American sculptor Onik Kardash (a Lebanese Armenian), who lived in Shusha in 2001. “Now Azerbaijanis will see that all their mosques and cemeteries had been completely broken, destroyed and dismantled... I have seen so many things they did with graves that I feel ashamed to tell it now. I am ashamed not as an Armenian, but as a human being... They (Armenians. R+) made holes in the graves to take out skulls and pull out golden teeth. There are skulls lying around the cemetery... It is impossible even to imagine the things they had done there. Buildings in Shusha... They have stairs and steps made of marble. If Azerbaijanis come and raise these slabs, they will see that these are the gravestones of their relatives,” Kardash said in his interview with Albert Isakov on his YouTube.

European cynicism

But the European Parliament is not concerned about the seven districts, which had been wiped out. It is more concerned about the fate of traces of Armenian presence in several Albanian churches. What about the dozens of mosques and other monuments of Islamic culture in Garabagh ruined by Armenians? What about mosques where the invaders kept their pigs, hence insulting Muslims?! Since when has religious discrimination been a fundamental norm in the EU?!

Even more cynical is the European Parliament's claim that Azerbaijan had been “destroying for thirty years Armenian cultural and religious sites” in Nakhchivan. Now imagine—after so many years, when Azerbaijan liberates its lands and presents the world community a horrifying picture of the consequences of Armenian occupation, the European Parliament is concerned with the fate of a handful of Armenian monuments in Nakhchivan!

Obviously, most of the MEPs who supported the biased resolution cannot even show Garabagh or Nakhchivan on the map. Nor do they have any idea that the monuments indicated in the resolution as Armenian are in fact part of the heritage of Caucasian Albania, which Azerbaijan had taken care of for centuries.

Not to mention historical facts… European Parliament accuses Azerbaijan of hindering the UNESCO mission but forgets that almost a month ago President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, EU Council President Charles Michel and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to send a UNESCO mission to Azerbaijan and Armenia.

It is worth reminding European MPs that it was Armenia that had prevented international missions from entering the occupied Azerbaijani territories for all these years. Had the European Parliament been so categorical in its stance then as it is now, perhaps the scale of destruction in the occupied lands would not have been so appalling.

Who is against peace in the region?

This is not the first time that Azerbaijan is suffering from double standards in global politics. It is also known that the Armenian lobby has a great influence on European politicians.

It is noteworthy that the European Parliament resolution coincided with the Azerbaijani President's visit to Turkey, the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Baku and Tehran on the creation of a new transport line connecting East Zangezur with the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, the first ever visit of the Armenian Foreign Minister to Turkey and several other processes aimed at building post-war peace and restoring economic links in the region. In addition, it is expected that the EU and Azerbaijan conclude a new bilateral cooperation agreement as early as in the first half of 2022. Adoption of a provocative resolution by the European Parliament under the dictation of the Armenian lobby is exacerbating antagonism between Azerbaijani and Armenian societies and does not contribute to lasting peace in the region.