NewsBlaze: Azerbaijan-Armenia: A Baseless, Senseless Conflict
Baku, October 8, AZERTAC
Azerbaijan is a peace-loving country that accommodates many ethnic and religion groups."
"As a Jewess who is constantly witnessing the toll of hate that Moslems show toward the Jewish state of Israel and general intolerance by Muslem societies, I am taken aback by such coexistence accomplished in a Moslem-ruled countries," says Nurit Greenber in her article 'Azerbaijan-Armenia: a baseless-senseless conflict' published on NewsBlaze.
"Several months ago, I had the honor to be invited to Azerbaijan to witness the ongoing development of a former USSR satellite, now working on its 25-year-old independence. I was impressed by what I saw but, in all fairness, knew that I did not complete my reportage," she writes in her article.
She says that Azerbaijan is a peace-loving country that accommodates many ethnic and religion groups, while Armenia, on the contrary, is seeking to prolong the conflict and constantly agitates its neighbor in an attempt to escalate the fighting. "For instance, in 2016 a 'standard' skirmish, started by the Armenians, took two days to end. 21 Azerbaijani soldiers lost their lives but Azerbaijan managed to take back a strategic hill and secured the safe return of Internally Displaced People (IDP) to their destroyed village, Çocuq Mərcanlı," Greenber says.
"Çocuq Mərcanlı is a village in the Jabrayil District of Azerbaijan. In 1993, in the course of the Nagorno-Karabakh War, the Armenian army pushed Azerbaijani forces out of the village after gaining control of the nearby hills. The village remained under Armenian control for four months, during which it was completely razed. Having failed to maintain control of the village, the Armenians retreated to the nearby hills.
"Çocuq Mərcanlı turned into no man's land and its population never returned out of fear of shelling, with the exception of one family who remained on the land, no matter what.
"On 7 April 2016, internally displaced persons from Çocuq Mərcanlı visited their home village for the first time in 23 years. In January 2017, Azerbaijan decided to invest 2 million euros into rebuilding the village, with an initial plan of paving a road and construction of 50 houses, school, medical clinic and other required amenities. At present, 100 more housing units are being built to receive 100 more families.
"Çocuq Mərcanlı, aslo Chojuk-Marjanly is currently the only village of the Jabrayil District effectively controlled by the Azerbaijani army.
"My visit to Çocuq Mərcanlı, accompanied by Azerbaijani military personal, where I met with the first IDP who returned to their ancestral village was impressive.
"For starters, the people have a roof over their head, running water, food and much hope. That is a very good start.
"The surrounding agricultural land is full of landmines the Armenians systematically put in the ground. Now the Azerbaijanis are busy doing the tedious and dangerous cleaning up of the land. They remove the hidden bombs so the once-fertile agricultural land can go back to its best use, producing food.
"From the village, I was escorted to the nearby army encampment surrounded by guards and protective soil hills, at 1-kilometer distance from the Iranian border and 500 meters from the frontier with Armenia. I was told that if I tried getting closer to the front line I might be shot at. That is how trigger-happy the Armenians are," the author of the article says.
"Speaking with the military personnel who accompanied me, I threw at them forthright questions such as, "what is the solution? How to bring about an end to such unfortunate and senseless tension and ongoing armed skirmishes?"
"I could sense the anger. Why? Because the Azerbaijani military is now strong and ready, what it was not in 1993. They are angry that they could not protect the people before, as they can now.
She reminded that there are four United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions demanding Armenia withdraw its troops from Azerbaijan territory and added that the UN cannot solve this conflict since the United Nations Organization 'is good at speaking' and since Azerbaijanis are eager to solve the conflict, 'resolution is in their hands'.
"Though the Minsk Group recognize the integrity of Azerbaijan to its land occupied by Armenia, this powerful group has not embarked on putting sufficient pressure on Armenia to abide by the UNSC binding resolution and withdraw its troops."
She noted that Azerbaijan, a peace-loving country, would like to sit at the negotiations table with Armenia and arrive at a solution that will serve the displaced people of both nations and serve the two countries as a whole. "Armenia is not interested in logic, rather in confrontation."
"However, if all fails, I am told that only war will resolve this conflict, a war that will return every piece of land that belongs to Azerbaijan to it rightful owner and then there will be peaceful progress.
"In the south-west part of Azerbaijan, there are glimpses of hope. I saw a shining ray of hope in the faces of the district manager, the village mayoral supervisor, the school headmaster and the military. They are starting life again where, to them and their ancestors is their homeland.
"I personally strongly suggest a strong and invincible Azerbaijan that has all the necessary deterrence tools to push back its enemy, Armenia. I pray for a peaceful end of a baseless, senseless conflict, soonest," the author of the article says.
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