Frankly, it’s hard to say what Armenia is hoping for. Azerbaijan conducted anti-terrorist operations on its territory, strictly adhering to the Geneva Conventions and its commitments, striving to minimize harm to civilians. The UN mission that visited the region did not record any damage to civilians or even civilian infrastructure, or evidence of pressure on local residents. So, this is more of a test for the court itself than for Azerbaijan and Armenia.
However, before evaluating Baku’s behavior, the ICJ of the UN might want to examine the activities of the UN’s own structures. And not only the ICJ, by the way.
Let’s recall: Azerbaijan’s accession to the UN coincided with the beginning of Armenia’s aggression against our country. The news of the Azerbaijani tricolor appearing in front of the UN headquarters in New York came on the last day of mourning for the victims of the Khojaly genocide. From the outset, our country chose a course of fruitful cooperation with UN structures and its representation in Baku in particular. Today, Azerbaijan adheres to a clear and straightforward position – our country “works” with the UN office in Baku. Azerbaijan has created all the conditions for the UN mission to visit Karabakh twice in a short period of time.
However, any collaboration should be a two-way street. But our country simply did not see this “two-way movement” from the side of UN institutions and structures.
For over a quarter of a century, FOUR – yes, FOUR! – UN Security Council resolutions related to Karabakh remained on paper. Moreover, over these 30 years, while Azerbaijani territories were under Armenian occupation, no “fact-finding missions” appeared there. Neither UNESCO nor other UN institutions showed any interest in the urbicide and ecocide that was happening in front of the global community for over a quarter of a century.
Armenian occupiers wiped Azerbaijani cities off the face of the earth, destroyed valuable architectural and historical monuments, even destroyed cemeteries, and inflicted massive damage on nature – but no one sent any missions to establish facts in the region. At the same time, during the occupation of its territories, Azerbaijan repeatedly appealed to the UN, UNESCO, and other international organizations and structures with a call to send fact-finding missions to the occupied lands.
To document what Armenian occupiers are doing with cities, villages, monuments, cultural heritage… However, for obvious reasons, Armenia did not show any desire to allow such a mission to the occupied territories, well understanding what could be seen there. And in the skyscraper on East River, they didn’t even try to pressure Armenia on this matter.
But now, at the very first whimper of long-suffering Armenia, the UN immediately, without any hesitation, wanted to monitor in Karabakh. This already represents discrimination and double standards. Yes, Azerbaijan is ready to cooperate. But if this is truly a fact-finding mission, if this is monitoring the real situation – in this case, the UN should at least now monitor the destruction of mosques and monuments over 30 years of occupation, the damage caused to Azerbaijani citizens who suffered from Armenian aggression, the tragedy of over a million Azerbaijani refugees, the “mine terror”, the issue of more than 4,000 Azerbaijani citizens missing (and Armenia’s refusal to cooperate with our country on this matter), and finally, the “ethnic cleansing” and destruction of Azerbaijani cultural heritage in Western Azerbaijan – that is, in the territory of modern Armenia. Otherwise, it will not be monitoring, but serving Armenian PR.
