Armenian Genocide in Azerbaijan – APPEAL TO EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PRESIDENT DAVID SASSOLI
AGA-Tribunal – 16.06.2020 – International law:
in Russian – https://aga-tribunal.info/europarl_14-6-2020/
From: NGO “Crossroad” (“Khachmeruk”), Armenia
To: European Parliament President David Sassoli
June 14, 2020
Dear Mr. Sassoli,
For us, the signatories of this letter, and for the many residents of Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, NKR), any reference to the territorial integrity and legitimate borders of the Republic of Azerbaijan is puzzling in the light of the following facts.
In the XX century in the East of Transcaucasia not a single entity with the name “Azerbaijan” appeared as a result of self-determination. Meanwhile, the legitimate borders according to European concepts were established precisely by the act of self-determination. Let’s turn to the history.
In 1918, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic appeared as a result of Turkish intervention. It never received recognition by the League of Nations and did not actually gain established or recognized borders. In April 1920, it left history when the XI Red Army of Soviet Russia overthrew the powers brought to Baku by the Turkish army and proclaimed the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.
The borders of Soviet Azerbaijan were also not determined by an act of self-determination, and it is impossible to discuss the legitimacy of the borders of this Soviet republic in terms of international law.
The borders of the current Azerbaijan Republic, which in the process of the collapse of the USSR proclaimed itself the successor of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, which did not have established or recognized borders, cannot be considered legitimate.
The act of proclamation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic on September 2, 1991 and the referendum on its independence on December 10 of that year were committed in territories not legally owned by the current Republic of Azerbaijan. The referendum on independence was held before the recognition of the Republic of Azerbaijan by Europe.
On December 29, 1991, Baku organized a “referendum” on independence only after Europe announced its decision to recognize new states in the post-Soviet space within the borders of the Soviet Union republics.
Europe’s recognition of the Republic of Azerbaijan with Nagorno-Karabakh, which does not belong to it, has been understood to this day and is understood in Baku as a permission and resolution to wage war against the self-determined NKR. Baku does not hide the fact that this war has the aim of continuing the extermination of the Armenian population of NKR started during the Armenian Genocide in the Eastern parts of Transcaucasia, which was begun by the Turks in 1918 and continued by the Baku authorities during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods.
We know, and you know, that the legitimacy of the borders does not follow from a political act of recognition by a state. We hope that members of the European Parliament are aware of this too.
To break through to a just settlement of the conflict, we must first break through to the truth about it!
Regards,
Vahan Babakhanyan
Chief of NGO “Crossroad”
aga-tribunal.info/en/europarl_14-6-2020_en/
