Armenian MP: Turkey Aiding Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh Means This is a Fight For Our Existence!

We speak to Maria Karapetyan, member of the National Assembly of Armenia and Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights & Public Affairs. She discusses the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in-depth, including Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev's interviews justifying the conflict, the claims Turkey is sending Islamist Syrian rebels to fight on Azerbaijan's side in the contested region, why Turkey's re-entry into the South Caucusus is a threat to Armenia's existence, allegations Armenia has struck Azeri energy infrastructure, the prospect of the South Cacusus becoming a hotbed of international terrorism, the international community's recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as Azerbaijan's territory and more!

#NagornoKarabakh #Armenia #Azerbaijan

Statement by Azeri Ambassador Tahir Taghizade

On who started the fight on September 27, 2020:

I would advise the guest to watch and analyze President Aliyev’s interviews again and try to do so without bias. What is there not to like? The fact that we do not have any single military target in Armenia and that we hold our fire despite our peaceful population being shelled? Or the fact that we don’t like to be dictated upon through putting forward preconditions? Besides, the war is going in the territories of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia.

The consecutive provocative steps and inflammatory rhetoric by the current political-military leadership of Armenia during last two years has shown that this country is not interested at all in the resolution of the conflict which means the restoration of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. To name but one, Prime Minister Pashinian declared that “Karabakh is Armenia, Period” in August 2019. And in March 2019 Armenia’s Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan declared that “territories for peace” approach will no longer be applied. Instead he said he is rephrasing it to “new war for new territories”. And that is where Ms. Karapetyan’s answer lies. As we have been warning the international community, Armenia’s political-military leadership by trying to derail peace process, has been preparing for new war along the way. The testimony to that is Armenia’s attack on Azerbaijan three times for the last three month: Back in July Armenia attacked Azerbaijan alongside the international border near Tovuz region of Azerbaijan; in August they sent a group to sabotage Azerbaijani positions and on September 27 Armenia started shelling our positions and cities.

With regard to civilian attacks

Armenia’s political-military leadership is solely responsible for current situation and future developments. Starting from day one, Armenia has been attacking civilian population of Azerbaijan living in the regions and cities along the line of contact and removed far from the conflict zone like Ganja, Mingechevir, Terter, Berde, Goranboy, Beylagan and many more. As of 09 October, 31 Azerbaijani civilians were killed by Armenia’s missile attacks. Unlike Armenia we are targeting only military objects. In Khankendi, Azerbaijan’s response was to target an artillery brigade outside of this city which was used to resupply other artillery units. The base was a legitimate military target, but, unfortunately Armenia’s policy of applying human shields around military installments continues. We have warned all civilians to leave the area.

Regarding “NK defense army”

The puppet regime illegally established by Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan to consolidate the results of the occupation has not been recognized by a single country in the world. There are only two parties to this conflict which are Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Regarding the claims on terrorist elements and foreign fighters

This is Armenian propaganda which we categorically reject. Azerbaijan has full-fledged and skilled military forces as well as capable state agencies to provide every protection the country needs. Yet, there have been numerous reports published in Greek, Arab and other media sources that terrorists of Armenian and non-Armenian descent from elsewhere are going to fight in Nagorno Karabakh. So I would say the nature of the conflict has not changed a lot: it is Armed forces of Armenia backed by terrorists and mercenaries against Armed Forces of Azerbaijan. What has changed is that now other terrorist groups, non-Armenian by nature are involved in the fight against Azerbaijan through good offices of the government of Armenia.

After all, is it not indicative that a country size of Armenia has over a dozen of groups internationally recognized as terrorists?

FULL STATEMENT RESPONSE BY AMBASSADOR TAGHIZADE ON RT'S WEBSITE: https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/503039-nagorno-karabakh-conflict-kyrgyz-revolution/