By Maryam Raza
The 44-days long second Karabakh war was concluded with Azerbaijan’s victory along with a trilateral ceasefire agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenian sponsored by Russia on 10 November 2020. The victory of Azerbaijan by prudent and startling policies of His Excellency, Ilham Aliyev brought the South Caucasus region into the spotlight of the international community. The success of Azerbaijan resulted in the defeat of Armenia, unveiling its true vicious motives and agenda for regional instability. Armenian could have learned a constructive lesson from the lost war. However, it preferred to play a vindictive card, enhanced state-sponsored terrorism in liberated regions of Karabakh and vice versa. War has always been futile, yet Armenia through its hostile moves continue to annihilate deaths, atrocities, and jeopardize regional stability via agreement violation. Azerbaijan's landmarked victory in the war and liberation of territories proved a game-changer event for the world. Azerbaijan made the brutal Armenian army give up all of its illegal possession in the region under the ceasefire agreement. Nevertheless, the recent blasts and hostile events in the liberated region of Azerbaijani have shown the direct sponsoring by Armenia.
The False Façade of Armenia:
Azerbaijan always has remained fair to the cause of humanity. However, Armenia has been violating the ceasefire agreement and hampering the peace process, which adds fragility to the truce and region’s stability. The major challenge rests with Armenian actions of remaining insensitive to basic human security in the region and not obliging to the international compact. Despite the international interventions to establish peace, the ill-will of Yerevan is blunt to defy the efforts. Since the early 1990s, the now liberated region of Azerbaijan has been littered with mines and unexploded ammunition by Armenia. It has been referred to as a “carpet of land mines.’’ It is a massive task to clear mines and ammunition from the battlefields in and around the liberated Karabakh region. Many civilians and military personnel have been killed or injured due to these mines. The recent 4th June 2021 landmine blast in Azerbaijan’s Kalbajar region, west of Karabakh, has killed two Azerbaijan journalists. This is yet another dreadful manifestation of Armenian ruthless and irresponsible demeanor of not providing maps of located mined areas. Months have been passed, and Armenia yet refuses to hand over maps, because of this more lives are endangered.
It has also been observed that the mines might have been planted recently in that area of Kalbajar, which means that Armenia is still engaged in terrorism and sabotage at the state level. Armenian atrocities and true face have been unveiled in front of the world. On 28 July 2021, brutal Armenian forces resort to unprovoked shelling in the Kalbajar district of Azerbaijan, followed by unprovoked shelling on 1st August 2021 on Azerbaijan’s post in Nakhchivan. The third dreadful violation by Armenian happened on 6th August 2021 when Armenian forces targeted Azerbaijan’s position in Hyderabad settlement of Sadarak province in Nakhchivan. The planned shelling and state-sponsored terrorism by Armenia is a blatant violation of the truce and peace.
The Fire beneath the Ashes:
The war has been over, and the world has come to know the rightful claim of Azerbaijan as it liberated the regions. However, Armenia has been still trying to light a fire beneath the ashes and igniting hostile sentiments through its violations, resulting in chaos and causalities. Yerevan leaders have a pessimistic approach and are war-obsessed, aiming at creating instability in the region. Moreover, it has recently been observed that Azerbaijan's Okhchu River has become the target of ecological terror in the form of heavy contamination with metals and waste material coming from the chemical plants in Armenia. The pollution of the river reached catastrophic levels killing flora and fauna and jeopardizing its future existence.
The Okhchu River is one of eleven rivers located in the liberated Karabakh (Garabagh) region of Azerbaijan, home to more than 30 percent of the country’s overall water reserves. During the nearly 30-year illegal Armenian occupation of the Karabakh region, environmental crimes, including deforestation, illicit trafficking of natural resources, and contamination of water reserves, became common. In this aspect, it has been confirmed that Armenians have been deliberately contaminating the rivers to disturb the environment, agriculture and create humanitarian disasters in Azerbaijan. Such belligerent moves would aggregate a geostrategic competition and conflict in the South Caucasus region by Armenian. Moreover, the Pashinyan administration has been fully trying to overturn the trilateral ceasefire agreement. It wants to wage war to redraw the political map of its Eastern neighbor.
In a nutshell, the international community, organizations, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and the world media must shift their focus towards Armenian atrocities and take stern action against Armenia. Azerbaijan must develop an effective winning strategy and planner before initiation of any conflict by Armenian. Pakistan has unconditionally supported Azerbaijan and will always stand with its brother country. As an expression of solidarity with Azerbaijan, Pakistan neither recognized Armenia nor established diplomatic relations. Pakistan will never jeopardize its cordial and brotherly relations with Azerbaijan. It will not back from its principal stance and will not accord recognition to Armenia. Pakistan will continue to disseminate facts and unveil Armenia's vicious motives that have threatened regional peace and caused humanitarian crises.
Maryam Raza is Research Associate, Center for Global & Strategic Studies (CGSS), Islamabad.
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