The Australian has today published a letter from Ramil Gurbanov, Chargé d’affaires ad interim of Azerbaijan to Australia, in response to a misleading commentary it had published early October about Nagorno Karabakh.
The commentary by Geoffrey Robertson infamous for his biased views against Turkey and his regular distortion of facts in favor of Armenia was just another piece out of his series to discredit Azerbaijan and Turkey and mislead the international community about the decades-long military occupation by Armenia of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories, including Nagorno Karabakh and 7 adjacent districts.
Please find the response letter below with screenshots:
I write in response to Geoffrey Robertson’s article “Massacres echo across Nagorno-Karabakh as Turkey eggs on Azerbaijan” (4/10). The international community recognises Nagorno-Karabakh as an inalienable part of Azerbaijan. Amid the Soviet Union’s demise, the Karabakh area and seven surrounding districts of Azerbaijan were militarily invaded by Armenia. Thousands of Azerbaijanis were killed, about 800,000 ethnically cleansed from the occupied areas.
Armenia has rejected UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874, 884) demanding immediate withdrawal of the Armenian forces from Azerbaijan’s occupied regions and lately even resorted to new attacks against Azerbaijan. Since September 27, Armenia has conducted missile attacks with banned munitions on populous cities of Azerbaijan, killing 91 civilians (including 10 children and one toddler) and wounding hundreds.
In self-defence, Azerbaijan’s army has undertaken a counter-offensive to deter Armenia’s military aggression and ensure the safety of its population. Unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan’s army does not target civilians, and acts exclusively within its sovereign borders. The Azerbaijani army does not use any outside support.
Azerbaijan is a secular, multicultural and multi-religious country where Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other religious-ethnic communities have coexisted and coexist in peace. The same cannot be said about Armenia — the most mono-ethnic country in the post-Soviet space.
Turkey strongly supports Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, so does Australia, with a clear official position not to recognise any illegal entity in Azerbaijan’s occupied territories.
For lasting peace and stability, Armenia must comply with the international law and let the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagorno-Karabakh live and prosper together in harmony.
Ramil Gurbanov, Chargé d’Affaires, Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Canberra, ACT
Click on image to enlarge
