SYMBOL OF GREAT VICTORY

The War Trophies Park in Baku has become a symbol of the Great Victory of Azerbaijan and the crushing defeat of Armenia in the 44-day war. It is not surprising that it caused such a hysterical reaction in Armenia, as well as in those world circles, which are unhappy with the outcome of the Garabagh.

The intolerant about ‘intolerance’

The War Trophies Park is significant because it reflects the liberation of the sacred and integral part of Azerbaijan – Garabagh. At the same time, it also shows the inglorious defeat of the enemy after thirty years of occupation and destruction of our territories, including the cities, villages, and natural reserves.

It is also symbolic that a group of Azerbaijani servicemen–heroes of the Patriotic War–were awarded during the opening ceremony of the park. After greeting the veterans, President of Azerbaijan and Supreme Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev specifically mentioned that Azerbaijan achieved an unprecedented victory in the world and expelled the enemy from its lands in the Second Karabakh War waging a war of the 21st century.

Trophies displayed in the park are inanimate witnesses of the expulsion of Armenian occupation troops from the territory of Azerbaijan. Among them are small arms, heavy equipment, missile systems, military vehicles and ammunition abandoned by the enemy, some of which were previously demonstrated at the Victory Parade in Baku on December 10, 2020. Visitors can also see the helmets of the killed or runaway invaders, as well as dummies depicting the defeated Armenian military personnel.

Mr. Aliyev also underlined that “everyone who visits the Park will see the potential of our army and how difficult it was to win this victory, because for 30 years the enemy had built fortifications in the occupied lands, dug trenches and made shelters. We now have established ourselves in the world as a victorious people. Armenia, however, is a country that has suffered defeat, a country that has fallen on its knees in front of us, a country which bows to us. And it will always be so.”

Meanwhile, there was a series of hysterical statements from Armenian experts, politicians and official bodies regarding the War Trophies Park in Baku. All of them can be summarised as the follows: the park is an indicator of the policy of hatred towards Armenians, xenophobia, intolerance conducted by Azerbaijan.

It is amazing to hear such statements from the representatives of a mono-ethnic state, who dare criticise and accuse Azerbaijan, a country where various peoples, ethnic and confessional groups have historically lived in peace and harmony. After all, Armenia has been a regional outcast since it first appeared on the political map of the world! This is the same Armenia that has ignited the bloodiest war in the post-Soviet space, has committed numerous war crimes against our people. It was Armenia which expelled a million of Azerbaijanis from their homes and scorched the occupied lands during the long years of the occupation...

In the detailed response of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Armenian insinuations related to the War Trophies Park, the ministry expressed the absurdity of such statements, as it was Armenia, which has destroyed the Azerbaijani historical, cultural and religious heritage, plundered our natural resources and appropriated the property of a million people for 30 years in violation of their fundamental rights. “The country, which erected a monument to the fascist Garegin Nzhdeh in Yerevan, glorifies the international terrorist Monte Melkonyan, who took an active part  in the First Garabagh War, and erected a monument to the terrorist Soghomon Tehlirian with a severed human head at his feet, has no right to talk about intolerance,” said the statement of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Remaining silent about its own hatred towards Azerbaijanis, Armenians criticised the wall displayed in the park, which was made from the license plates of military trucks left on the battlefield by the Armenian enemy. However, as President Ilham Aliyev recalled in his speech, “it was Armenians who demonstrated the license plates of private cars of Azerbaijanis on a similar wall after the First Garabagh War as a proof showing that Azerbaijanis were indeed expelled from the land of their ancestors."

Thus, the idea of ‘a wall with license plates’ does not belong to Azerbaijanis. But unlike the Armenian wall, the license plates shown in the park belonged to the Armenian military trucks taken as war trophies and are a symbol of the defeated invading troops expelled from the occupied lands, not civilians.

Apparently, the main reason of the anti-trophy hysteria in Armenia is not the weapons and items that once belonged to Armenian troops. It is the very fact of opening the War Trophies Park in the capital of Azerbaijan as a symbol of Azerbaijan’s brilliant victory over Armenia that raises hysteria in the latter.

The hypocrisy of Armenophiles

While everything is more or less clear about the feelings and the attitude of the defeated side to the War Trophies Park, it is at least surprising to learn about the ambiguous reaction of certain world circles, in particular in the West and in Russia. Pro-Armenian circles continue to criticise Azerbaijan because they apparently cannot come to terms with what they see in Baku – a new landmark showing the triumph of Azerbaijan in the Second Garabagh War.

Indeed, not only could Azerbaijan change the course of events set by the global centres in the South Caucasus but it also made the dream of liberating Garabagh a truth by crushing on the battlefield a country that had enjoyed unprecedented global preferences for almost thirty years. Armenia continued to keep under occupation 20% of the internationally recognised territory of a neighbouring state without being held responsible by the international community for its deeds. I would like to those who condemn Azerbaijan in the US, Europe and Russia, shouting in unison with Armenians about “Armenophobia in Azerbaijan”: where have you been during all 30 years of the Armenian occupation of the Azerbaijani lands? Why was not your "fair voice" heard when the "long-suffering Armenian people” so cherished by you made thousands of peaceful Azerbaijanis suffering by killing them, plundering their homes, expelling them from their native lands?

Answers to these questions are obvious. The well-known world circles are not interested in principal position, for they are driven exclusively by their own interests. Their undisguised turkophobic and Islamophobic attitudes are not something new. As well as their hypocrisy. French, American, Greek, Russian and other advocates of Armenians are allegedly horrified by the fact that the trophy park with helmets and mannequins displayed there “insults the memory of Armenian soldiers”, “is a manifestation of medieval traditions”, etc.

Such accusations sound hypocritical because similar facilities exist and enjoy popularity in the same countries. For example, the famous Louvre in Paris became famous as a museum since the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte, who, thanks to his countless trophies from military campaigns, turned this historical building into a museum of military glory.

There are many museums of military trophies in many cities of Russia, such as one of the world's largest military history museums – the Victory Museum on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow. It is dedicated to the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, and includes, in particular, about 300,000 trophies confiscated from the defeated troops of the Hitlerite coalition. Among them are machine guns, assault rifles, helmets, medals, samples of military uniforms of German, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Hungarian and Finnish soldiers. There are also battle scenes, wax caricatures of German servicemen.

Similar facilities are the Imperial Museum in London, the War Museum of the National Residence of the Invalids in Paris, the Netherlands National War Museum in Zosterberg, and many others displaying military helmets, mannequins in the uniforms of the enemy army, genre scenes and, of course, captured armoured vehicles. Let alone the trophy storage facilities in some European countries, which contain items of a completely different kind. For example, the skulls of Algerian freedom fighters killed by the French colonialists are on display as trophies in one of the museums in France. German Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation has a collection of human skulls brought from Africa, again as spoils of war.

It turns out that the French and Germans, who present themselves as symbols and role models of the European civilization, may keep skulls as trophies, as a symbol of their dubious victories in Africa but Azerbaijan may not exhibit war trophies of Armenian invaders, who for almost thirty years have held Garabagh captive in front of the entire international community?

Another important aspect is that the trophies presented in Russian and European museums, items of military uniforms of soldiers defeated in the Second World War by the German, Italian and other armies, are not perceived as an insult to the memory of both the winning and defeated nations, which once experienced the shame and pain of a defeat. Moreover, Germans and Italians still pay tribute to the victory of all progressive mankind over the evil of Nazism, regret the fascist past of their countries. Do the Armenians regret the historical injustice they have committed against the Azerbaijani people, the many years of fierce occupation of its lands, the unprecedented vandalism they have committed?

We have not yet seen any signs of regret and remorse from our unfortunate neighbours. Therefore, the world circles sympathetic to Armenians, instead of being annoyed by the creation of a War Trophies Park in Baku, should have helped Armenia to realise the disastrous path that it took, nurturing, in fact, fascist plans to seize Azerbaijani territories.

As for the park in Baku, it was created to always remind us of the Great Victory of Azerbaijan over Armenian fascism. Therefore, President Ilham Aliyev always focuses attention on the fact that with the victory in the 44-day war, our army not only expelled the Armenian occupants and liberated our lands, but also crushed Armenian fascism, thereby fulfilling its historical mission. This is evidenced by the War Trophies Park. A symbol showing that we will never forget the evils of Armenian fascism, we will always be ready, if it tries to raise its head again, destroy it with all the power of our iron fist.