(Russian version — http://miaban.ru/info/russia/zayav_29_12_16/)

On December 29 Azerbaijan committed another major war crime against the Republic of Armenia: Azerbaijan’s armed forces killed three Armenian servicemen on Armenian territory during their diversionary incursion. Confronted by a decisive rebuff, Azerbaijanis were forced to drive back with a loss. All this took place just three days after the summit of Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in St. Petersburg, two weeks after the International Day against genocide and on the eve of the New Year.

Since the South Caucasus region is heavily dependent on Russian policy, a significant part of the responsibility for peace and preventing crimes lies with Moscow. Unfortunately, this policy regarding its only strategic ally in the South Caucasus has largely discredited traditional status of Russia in the eyes of the general public of Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora.

During the 22 years after the signing of the Bishkek agreement initiated by Baku, and especially in recent years, Azerbaijan has regularly violated the ceasefire, continuing acts of diversionary incursion: local and frontal military operations, aggressive racist policies, glorification of criminals as heroes, and bribery of international political and media representatives at various levels.

The April war unleashed by Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Republic of Artsakh) was accompanied by egregious war crimes in style of ISIS jihadists.  https://sites.google.com/site/stopturkey2015/vote1/miting-24-4-2016

Facts were documented and presented to different organizations by the Ombudsman’s Office of the Republic of Artsakh. The title of the report contained the following phrase «the atrocities committed by Azerbaijan».  https://sites.google.com/site/stopturkey2015/vote1/doklad_dec_8_2016/doklad-na-russkom

Azerbaijan was artificially formed by the Anglo-Turkish-Bolshevik collusion and from the very beginning had three main principles: Armenophobia http://miaban.ru/themes/gen-in-azer/baku_1918/, forced assimilation of native peoples into the artificially created nation «Azerbaijanis” http://www.yerkramas.org/article/255/ and pathological lie https://sites.google.com/site/doloylozh/loz-azerbajdzana/sl-ter-gabrielanc  All these years, starting with the massacres and pogroms in Sumgait (1988), Kirovabad (1988), Baku (1990), Maragha (1992), with the criminal deportation of civilians from the Armenian villages in Nagorno Karabakh and surrounding regions 1991 and repeating its acts of atrocity and terrible war crimes during its dirty armed aggression in April 2016, all this had openly showed the inhumane nature of Azerbaijani policy. For anyone familiar with all their crimes committed in the last 28 years, it is obvious that Azerbaijan with such a policy and authorities is a criminal-recidivist state.  http://www.bvahan.com/art/o_voyne.asp    http://miaban.ru/themes/gen-in-azer/voen_prestup_1/

Unfortunately, Russia, being currently the main guarantor of stability in the region, a major country in the CSTO and the main force among countries-participants of the Minsk group, limits its activities by half-measures. Moscow still hasn’t undertaken effective measures (such as those required by the Article 7 of the Charter of the CSTO) — neither military, nor diplomatic, economic or informative.

The military provocation perpetrated by Azerbaijan on December 29, 2016 «was an act of aggression not only against Armenia, but also against Russia»  https://regnum.ru/news/polit/2223750.html  Moreover, Russia itself for many years sells lethal offensive weapons to aggressive Azerbaijan which in its turn for years has been shooting hundreds times in the direction of the Armenian border every day. «The supply of arms to Azerbaijan becomes madness» — this is the title of the article by a Russian analyst (link above). Political and economic flirting with the aggressor became a commonplace practice for Moscow, along with silencing of the war crimes of Azerbaijan in domestic Russian media. Amorphous and misplaced statements has been heard for years. How moral are the politics that set recidivist aggressor equal to the object of aggression? How moral is the policy non-interference, and even provoking tensions and conflicts followed by a «peacekeeping intervention»?

Armenian people have to pay too high a price, including the lives of hundreds of young people, for such conjuncture political «games» orchestrated by Moscow. This situation is unacceptable and very dangerous for the Armenian nation, as it is a question of survival.

Unfortunately, the Armenian authorities and some of the traditional Armenian organizations in Russia do not have enough political will to tell the full truth as it is.

But the public of Armenia, Artsakh and the Diaspora — the global Armenian nation in the world — has its position: open and hidden aid to inhumane policy is, to say the least, immoral.

We agree with the opinion on the website of one Russian virtual museum: «We are a small country, but with high dignity. When there is a lack of understanding with Russia, we have to express our confident opposition, so it would not become a problem for our relations in further».   https://www.armmuseum.ru/news-blog/2016/12/30/-

The same applies to many other major countries and international organizations. An old epoch is gone – an epoch of the principles that are out of touch with reality, an epoch of spinelessness, of an ostrich policy of silencing, manipulation and «double standards», especially when it comes to existential issues concerning the people, that has risen after being crucified on the Turkish Calvary and survived the Genocide.

Given the fact that

— Above mentioned soft, muffled and misplaced character of «condemnation» of the crimes with declarative and belated appeals to peace leads to the exaggeration of self-entitlement of the brazen aggressor,

— Military diversionary incursion on December 29, 2016 is a direct continuation of the April war, is another step in the endless chain of crimes and also is a logical consequence of hidden genocidal strategy of Azerbaijan,

— One of the main goals of Azerbaijan in the last military diversionary incursion is to test the reaction of the CSTO member-states, to split the union or turn it into pan-Turkic direction,

We do believe that only tough and unambiguous reaction, with no possibility of double interpretation, would eliminate the ongoing hybrid and seemingly lukewarm war instigated by the recidivist aggressor. Only a firm approach will stop Azerbaijan from committing even more atrocities and unleashing a large-scale war in the region.

We urge:

— To give an immediate and unambiguous assessment of the actions of Azerbaijan on December 29, 2016 as an act of armed aggression and a crime against CSTO member — Armenia;

— To recognize the statehood of the Republic of Artsakh (NKR), proven by 26 years of heroic and democratic development https://sites.google.com/site/stopturkey2015/vote1/artsakh

— To practically facilitate the implementation of mechanisms of international monitoring of the cease-fire regime (civil OSCE observers) and of prompt investigation of border incidents; (see an article on the Regnum information agency web site posted just a day before the diversionary incursion  https://regnum.ru/news/polit/2222583.html)

— To support the process of bringing those from the Azerbaijani side who are responsible for the committed war crimes and genocidal acts since 1988, and on April 2016 in particular, to the international court;

— To stop the ongoing atmosphere of semi-truth, a policy of concealment of crimes committed by Azerbaijan and spreading of misinformation in the Russian media.  https://sites.google.com/site/stopturkey2015/vote1/obrasenie-13-yanvara-2016

Saint Petersburg, Russia

December 31, 2016

http://miaban.ru/info/russia/zayav_29_12_16_eng