BAKU: Turkey is not supporting Azerbaijan solely on the ground of friendly, brotherly ties but also because it is right in its case, Turkish Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop said. “Today, all international organizations indicate that Armenia is an occupational force,” he said during the second day of his official visit to Baku. Şentop arrived in Baku on Sunday along with a delegation of deputies from several parties. Turkey’s Parliament speaker met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Monday and later his counterpart and other high-level officials. On Tuesday, Şentop will also address Azerbaijani lawmakers in the National Assembly.
In his reception of the Turkish committee, Aliyev thanked Ankara for its support of the people of Azerbaijan. “Since the beginning of the Armenian attacks, the statements of my dear brother Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, of you as the Turkish Parliament’s head, of the foreign and defense ministers, have all sent a clear message to the world,” he stated. Şentop reiterated Ankara’s unyielding support to Baku and said: “Turkey is on the side of Azerbaijan in its rightful cause. Whenever Azerbaijan wants support, Turkey is ready.”
During his talks with Azerbaijan’s Parliament Speaker Sahibe Gafarova, Şentop underlined the strong ties between the two countries, while Gafarova stated that the nations have signed 249 agreements so far. “Our trade volume reached $4.5 billion in 2019. Despite the pandemic, in the first eight months of this year, the trade volume reached $3 billion. These are good indicators, yet they are below our countries’ potential,” Gafarova said.
The speaker also thanked Turkey’s political parties for the joint declaration they signed on Sept. 28 condemning Armenia’s attacks on Azerbaijan.
He also met local journalists to whom he underlined Azerbaijan’s historical and lawful rightfulness and stated that its independent flag would fly forever.
Şentop said today’s world will not remain silent over Armenia’s occupation and war crimes unlike at the time of the Khojaly Massacre 28 years ago.The town in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh suffered what the Human Rights Watch (HRW) has described as the “Khojaly Massacre.”
On Feb. 26, 1992, following massive artillery bombardment, Armenian armed forces and paramilitary units moved in to seize the community. Once the assault began, around 2,500 remaining inhabitants tried to leave, hoping to reach the nearest area under Azerbaijani control but were ambushed, killed by gunfire, captured by Armenian forces or froze to death. A total of 613 ethnic Azerbaijanis lost their lives in the brutal attacks. Some 1,275 were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 victims still remains unknown. Şentop said Turkey and Erdoğan would continue to voice Azerbaijan’s rightfulness to the world.
Armenia is committing war crimes by attacking civilians, Şentop stated.
“The world has to see this war crime. It is seeing it, yet it has to take a position. Particularly the co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group have to condemn attacks on civilians. Those staying silent have become a party to the crime,” the parliament speaker said. Adding that Azerbaijan is responding to Armenia’s aggression under its U.N.-guaranteed right to self-defense, Şentop said Baku abides by international law and only hits military targets while Yerevan targets civilians.
“Expecting a country that does not abide by the law of war and that bombs civilians to abide by a cease-fire is foolish,” he pointed out. Speaking about Armenia’s deadly attack against civilians on Saturday, when a missile hit a residential area in Azerbaijan’s second-largest city Ganja, killing 13 people including children, Şentop said it was possible Yerevan could be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“This is a war crime according to the Geneva Convention. According to the Rome Statute, though Armenia is not part of the International Criminal Court, it could be possible for it to be tried by a court on war crimes established by the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) and the ICC,” he said. –Agencies
