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Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop, who is in Azerbaijan on a three-day official visit to hold talks on the ongoing Upper Karabakh conflict, has said that Armenia is committing war crimes.
"Armenian forces bomb civilians, and that is a 'war crime' according to the Geneva Convention," he said. "Armenia is a state that does not even respect the law of war. So, it would be absurd to expect that it would respect the cease-fire."
Azerbaijan's President İlham Aliyev thanked Turkey for its support and said that "his brother" President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's statements were "a clear message to the world."
"I have said this several times and I want to say again that if this open position had not been demonstrated, other forces could have intervened. Armenia's goal is exactly that, they want to expand the geography of this conflict but they are completely wrong. They see that they cannot confront us on their own," he remarked.
Fresh clashes erupted on September 27 in Nagorno-Karabakh, or Upper Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan.
A second cease-fire went into effect Saturday (October 17) midnight after the October 10 truce, to allow an exchange of prisoners and the recovery of bodies.
However, clashes continued as both sides accused each other for breaching the cease-fire.
Turkey has supported Baku's right to self-defense and demanded a withdrawal of Armenia's forces from Upper Karabakh.
On the contrary, Şentop said: "Azerbaijan abides by international law and the war ethics. It is just using its right to self-defense by the 51st article of the Charter of the United Nations. Azerbaijan's army only fights with the military targets."
He added that it was the responsibility of the co-head states of the OSCE Minsk Group to solve the dispute fairly "but they are donating arms to Armenia."
The OSCE Minsk Group, which is co-chaired by France, Russia and the US, was formed in 1992 to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, but to no avail.
"This is the reason this problem is lingering on for the last 30 years. It is because they do not want to do so," he said.
Reiterating that Azerbaijan-Turkey ties are unique, Şentop said the "one nation, two states" slogan is not hollow, and it is evident from bilateral cooperation in every field.
"Our bonds would last forever," he asserted. "We support Azerbaijan not only because of our bonds, but because Azerbaijan is right. Upper Karabakh has never been a separate place from Azerbaijan."
He added: "Karabakh is a territory of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is right both in terms of history and international law. The United Nations Security Council has decisions to end the occupation, unconditionally. In all decisions of international organizations, Armenia is reported to be an occupier."
About the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute
Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous region of approximately 4,400 square kilometers in the Caucasus between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Relations between the two former Soviet countries have been tense since 1989 over Nagorno-Karabakh, or Upper Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan populated mostly by Armenians. In 1989, the parliament of Azerbaijan removed Nagorno-Karabakh's autonomous status, which had been in place since 1923. During the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Armenia began military operations into Nagorno-Karabakh in 1991. In the same year, the separatist administration in Nagorno-Karabakh declared independence. The Azeri people of the region had boycotted the independence referendum. The independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh, or Artsakh republic, is not recognized by any United Nations member state, including Armenia. Four UN Security Council and two UN General Assembly resolutions as well as many international organizations demand the withdrawal of the occupying forces. The OSCE Minsk Group – co-chaired by France, Russia and the US – was formed in 1992 to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. A cease-fire was agreed upon in 1994. France, Russia and NATO, among others, have urged an immediate halt to clashes in the occupied region. During the conflict between 1988-1994, about one million people were displaced and 30,000 were killed. |
(DŞ/VK)
