UNDER THE SIGN OF VICTORY

August 26, 2022 went down in history as a day of yet another historic event following Azerbaijan's great victory in the 44-day 2020 Patriotic War. With the peaceful (without a single shot) liberation of the town of Lachin, as well as the villages of Zabukh and Sus the Lachin district fully returned to the sovereign control of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The administrative centre of the district, the town of Lachin, now and forever holds the Azerbaijani flag.

Azerbaijanis are back!

The return of Lachin and the villages of Zabukh and Sus to Azerbaijani control was announced by the President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Ilham Aliyev. All international media outlets quoted a twit from Mr. Aliyev’s personal account: "Today, on August 26, we, the Azerbaijanis, returned to the city of Lachin. Azerbaijani army is deployed in the city of Lachin. The villages of Zabukh and Susa have been taken under control. I congratulate all the people of Lachin and Azerbaijan on this event. Long live Lachin! Long live Azerbaijan!".

One of the key provisions of the November 10, 2020 trilateral statement - the act of surrender of Armenia in the 44-day war - has thus been implemented. This concerns the sixth clause of the document, which provides for the construction of a new communication route through the Lachin corridor, followed by the redeployment of a Russian peacekeeping contingent to protect it. Immediately after the end of the war, despite the liberation of the entire Lachin district by December 1, 2020 as stipulated in the trilateral statement, the town itself was not returned to Azerbaijani control, as it hosted the only road linking Armenia with the mountainous part of Garabagh - an integral territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan. However, less than two years after the signing of the statement, Azerbaijan built the new Lachin road envisaged in the document.

President Aliyev spoke in detail about this process in his interview with the Azerbaijani television: "We constructed this road in under a year. It is 32 kilometres long. Before this, right after the Second Garabagh War, we started negotiations with the Russian side on the route of this road... This route was agreed. Of course, we did not have to coordinate it with Armenia, because the issue does not concern Armenia in any way. Armenia was simply notified of the point of exit to the Armenian border. Plus they had to bring the new road to this exit point from their side. But, unfortunately, they did not do this. Why? To waste time, that’s it. There is no other reason.”

According to President Aliyev, Azerbaijan has also offered to build a road on Armenia's territory. "That section [of the road] is roughly 8-9 kilometres long. But they refused and said they wanted to build it themselves. And when did they start the construction?! It is hard to call it a start, as they have recently launched a feasibility study, soon after we sent a formal notification to the Russian side. We notified them that we were going to complete this road on August 5 and asked to move peacekeepers' posts from the old road to the new one. And this is quite natural. Armenians must have read our letter to Russians too. On the following day Armenian authorities said that they wanted to start an economic feasibility study and to build the road by the end of 2023. That is, in fact, a manipulation. A completely unserious and inadequate step. We said that in this case, we would enter the Lachin corridor on August 5, set up checkpoints to see how you do your job. After that there was a commotion, and the Armenians living in Garabagh approached us and repeatedly asked to give them time until the end of August. We agreed because it did not make much difference whether they finish on August 5, 25, or even September 1. At the same time, the Armenians living in Garabagh  asked us to also build a 4-kilometre dirt road to the point that will connect to the Armenian border. We agreed to this as well".

Thus, Azerbaijan has taken all measures to liberate the town of Lachin and the surrounding villages as soon as possible, as well as to activate the new road with the redeployment of Russian peacekeepers. The issue of the mode of operation of the new road, which official Baku has repeatedly stated and warned about, will depend on the legal regime of the future Zangezur corridor, which according to the trilateral statement will connect the western regions of Azerbaijan with its Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan.

Either way, the Armenian revanchists failed to make their dream of being able to oppose the return of Lachin to Azerbaijan as part of the process of the complete and unconditional de-occupation of Azerbaijani territories come true. They have still tried to infuse the Armenian public consciousness with another portion of Azerbaijaniophobia presenting the return of Lachin to Azerbaijani control as something terrible, as a new "portion of Armenian lands going under the enemy control”. However, almost no one in Armenia is talking about the legal return to Azerbaijan of Lachin and surrounding villages, which were seized by Armenian aggressors 30 years ago. These are Azerbaijani territories, which had been populated with Azerbaijanis before the Armenian occupation.

Although some hotheads in Armenia even called for provocations and almost armed resistance in Lachin, they could not avoid the inevitable - the liberation of the Azerbaijani town and the launching of a new corridor route. Admittedly, Azerbaijan had to use a convincing argument such as the military Operation Vengeance. As a result, the Armenian occupiers had to abandon Lachin, Zabukh and Sus. Some of them repeated the shameful Armenian experience of abandoning other people's lands by setting fire to houses, forests, etc. This caused the General Prosecutor's Office of Azerbaijan to institute respective criminal cases. But these excesses were not as massive as the Armenian withdrawal from the districts of Kalbajar and Lachin at the end of autumn 2020. That’s reasonable given Azerbaijan's readiness to prevent by any means a widespread demonstration of the criminal manifestations of Armenian madness.

President Ilham Aliyev made clear in his interview that it was impossible for Armenians who had illegally settled in Lachin during the occupation: "Individuals illegally settled in Lachin, as well as the villages of Zabukh and Sus must leave these areas. It is natural, as their presence there is essentially a war crime because it contradicts the rules of the Geneva Convention. An occupying country cannot illegally settle on occupied land. This is a war crime. Perhaps the Armenians living there, who come from Syria and Lebanon, do not know this, but the Armenian leadership is well aware of this. That’s why we often can hear that some Armenian want to leave these territories while some not. They know better. They are war criminals. They should not test our patience again. They should leave the area voluntarily."

De-occupation till its logical conclusion

The liberation of the town of Lachin and the villages of Zabukh and Sus may go down in history as a special case of the military de-occupation of Azerbaijani territories. It is clear that the return of Lachin and surrounding villages to Baku precedes the completion of the full and final assertion of the sovereign rights of the Republic of Azerbaijan over the entire territory which had been under Armenian occupation for almost three decades—from the early 1990s until the 2020 Patriotic War.

Final decision on the military de-occupation of Azerbaijani territories will depend on whether one of the most important conditions of the trilateral statement is implemented peacefully. Namely, the provision on the withdrawal of all Armenian armed forces from the part of Azerbaijani territory where the Russian peacekeeping contingent is temporarily deployed. This includes both parts of the Armenian Armed Forces and illegal Armenian military groups.

President Ilham Aliyev warned in his interview in Basgal, Ismayilli: "We do not war to start a new war. Enough is enough. We have achieved what we want. We want the Armenian armed groups to leave Garabagh once and for all. This is Armenia's commitment stipulated in the act of surrender it signed on November 10, 2020. We will and are achieving it".

Meanwhile, the separatist junta on the territory of the temporary deployment of Russian peacekeeping forces even now, after yet another defeat of the Armenian military as a result of Operation Vengeance and the complete liberation of Lachin, makes statements about "the independence of Nagorny Garabagh". This means that any scenario is possible and that there must, however, be one outcome - the final assertion of Azerbaijani sovereignty over the entire territory of liberated Garabagh.

Armenians living in Khankendi and the surrounding areas, whom Azerbaijan considers its own citizens—this fact was once again stated by President Ilham Aliyev—have every opportunity to continue to reside on these territories. But to live as citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan and thus to live peacefully, without any illegal military escort.

Republic of Azerbaijan provides its citizens of Armenian nationality, like all citizens in general, with guarantees of safe and peaceful life, development and prosperity. But of course these guarantees do not apply to those who carry out illegal, anti-state activities and advocate the seizure from Azerbaijan of an integral part of its internationally recognised territory.

The separatist junta, whose leaders are still raising their criminal voice from Azerbaijani soil, which is part of the zone of temporary responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping forces, is doomed. The only question is whether it will cease to exist, so to speak, on a voluntary basis, or whether another crushing operation by the Azerbaijani army will be necessary for its final elimination.

The normalisation of Azerbaijani-Armenian inter-state relations depends on Yerevan's willingness and readiness to conclude a peace treaty with Baku. This is possible only if Armenia accepts the practical, not merely declarative, basic principles proposed by Azerbaijan. Principles based on mutual recognition by Azerbaijan and Armenia of their sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability of borders and confirmation that the parties have no territorial claims against each other.

President Ilham Aliyev stated clearly and unequivocally that "Garabagh is no more a topic of discussions in the normalisation process ongoing between Armenia and Azerbaijan today. There have been such attempts, but I have never agreed to this. What does Armenia have to do with it? This is our internal affair."

Thus, there is no possibility of concluding a peace treaty unless Armenia recognises that  Garabagh belongs to Azerbaijan. This must be an unambiguous recognition, which will imply Armenia's irrevocable rejection of its policy of gross violation of the principles and norms of international law, which it has demonstrated during the thirty-year occupation of Azerbaijani territories.

The return of Lachin to Azerbaijan should convince Armenia that there is no alternative to this approach. Unless, of course, the alternative is Azerbaijan's repeatedly expressed readiness to take a similar step if Armenia refuses to recognise its territorial integrity. That is, to reject the principle of inviolability of internationally recognized borders as a basis for interstate Azerbaijani-Armenian coexistence. With all the resulting fatal consequences for the territorial integrity of Armenia.