Statement from NIPA to IDU
To the secretary general of the International Democrat Union
To the UDI member political parties
Dear Colleagues,
As it is known, 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory was under Armenian occupation for 30 years with direct military assistance of Russia. In response to the Armenian’s occupation and sabotage groups’ regular attack, Azerbaijan launched military operations which lasted for 44 days and came to an end on November 10, 2020 by signing trilateral statement between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia.
As a result of 44-day-war most part of the territories of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia were liberated from occupation. At present time in parallel with demining process a large-scaled reconstruction-restoration work together with vast infrastructure projects have been launched in these regions, as well as construction of roads, airports and power plants have been started. De-mining process of those areas are the main obstacles for rebuilding completely destroyed infrastructure and homes for about 1 million. A lot of appeals made by Azerbaijani authorities in connection with the handing over minefields’ maps and calls to international organizations in this regard have not yielded any results so far. Official Yerevan ignored the calls regarding handing over those maps to Azerbaijan. Consequently, in the period since November 10th 2020, 140 civilians were hit by landmines and 27 of them were killed.
Another outrageous issue is the attempts of Armenian military units and sabotage groups to carry out terrorist acts by entering the Azerbaijani territories even in the post-war period. As an example of this is a sabotage group consisted of 62 Armenian armed forces’ members, detained on December 9, a month after the end of the war.
Another incident took place on May 27, 2021. At about 03:00 am, an Armenian sabotage group consisted of 24 members of crossed Azerbaijan’s state border in the Kalbajar region, attempted to re-plant mines in the supply routes and roads which had been demined and used by civilians. Six Armenian servicemen were eventually detained and disarmed as a result of operational measures taken by the Azerbaijani armed forces. It is the consequence of such terror acts aimed at civilians that few days ago, on June 4, 2021, a vehicle carrying mass media representatives implementing their duties while filming the ongoing reconstruction-restoration work in the liberated areas of Azerbaijan, was hit by a landmine planted by saboteurs in the Kalbajar region. Correspondent Maharram Ibrahimov and cameraman Siraj Abishov, as well as the deputy representative of the head of the Kalbajar district Executive Authority Arif Aliyev, were killed when their vehicle hit the anti-tank mine. Four Azerbaijani civilians were seriously injured and hospitalized.Unfortunately, despite all of these incidents neither OSCE Minsk Group’s chairs nor other international organizations, or democratic powers as a whole have ever condemned Armenia’s activity aimed at killing of civilians. On the contrary, several states and international organizations, France in particular, are calling on the release of those so-called servicemen who are culpable for all these terrorist acts, arrested and neutralized by the Azerbaijani army.Due to the wrong attitudes by the international community, such double standards damage the confidence of the Azerbaijani people over the European and democratic values.
Respected Colleagues!
Aiming and killing civilians is an act of terrorism committed not only against a state and its citizens, but also against humanity as a whole. For this reason, I call on each of you to demand that Armenia provide minefield maps, as well as to give a political assessment to the above mentioned in order that such crimes against humanity will be prevented .
With deep respect,
Etibar Mammadov
Leader of National Independence Party of Azerbaijan
