"The Khojaly Massacre is the most horrible tragedy and genocide in modern times at the global level", said Peter Tase, a political analyst and international relations expert with the Marquette University in an exclusive interview to “Eurasia Diary”.
Eurasia Diary: From point of your view, is the Khojaly genocide one of the tremendous tragedies against humanity in the world history?
Peter Tase: The Khojaly Massacre was committed on February 25-26, 1992, by the ethnic Armenian armed forces against the innocent Azerbaijani Civilians. These armed attacks caused the death of over 613 civilians (including 110 women and 65 children). This tragedy is the largest crime against humanity within the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh Armed Conflict. There is no doubt that the Khojaly Massacre is the most horrible tragedy and genocide in modern times at the global level. International Human Rights organizations, European Union Commission and the European Parliament must clearly show an unwavering political and humanitarian support, towards such a ruthless armed assault, by commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Khojaly Massacre with a special resolution. The Khojaly Massacre epitomizes a real holocaust of the 21st Century.
The European Union, United States Congress and the institutions of the free and democratic world must show their support towards the long-suffering Azerbaijani People by issuing proclamations that commemorate this important anniversary of one of the bloodiest tragedies of the post Cold-War era in Europe and Asia. It is unfortunate that the very same Armenian political stereotype that orchestrated the Khojaly Massacre is taking hostage the regional economic growth in Southern Caucasus and continues to cause so much harm to the Sovereign territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan and its innocent civilians, causing the largest number of Internally Displaced Persons per capita, at the world level, and burning to the ground and destroying (for over twenty years) the rare archeological treasures of Azerbaijani historiography and culture in more than twenty percent of the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan.
Eurasia Diary: How do you think, should the Congress of the United States recognize the Khojaly genocide?
Peter Tase: I fully support the recognition of the Khojaly Massacre by the United States Congress and the White House. This month is a ripe opportunity to have the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev to give a speech to a joint session of Congress and this would be a unique occasion to raise awareness about this terrible holocaust that has shaken the Azerbaijani nation and the civilized world.
I am confident that, as they would listen to the keynote speech given by President Ilham Aliyev, the members of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate will have an opportunity to become familiar with the Azerbaijani effective public policies and Baku’s matured foreign policy. The Khojaly Massacre will be engraved in the world history as the bloodiest massacre in modern times and all of us must shed more light towards making such a tragic historic event to become significantly known across continents.
Eurasia Diary: Thousands of cultural and religious monuments have been destroyed in occupied regions of Azerbaijan? What can you say about it?
Peter Tase: As we carefully observe the armed provocations that are committed by Armenian Armed Forces, almost every day, at the Line of Contact, another cultural genocide is committed by Yerevan’s Armed Forces in more than twenty percent of the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. Let me emphasize that for over two decades, Armenian Armed Forces have plundered, burned to the ground and fully destroyed over one thousand cultural monuments, religious monuments (a good number of these cultural and religious monuments were built under the peculiar architecture technique of Ajami ibn Abubakr Nakhchivani School of architecture) and archeological sites of great importance to international scholars.
Armenian Armed Forces have destroyed many libraries that were home of hundreds of thousands of rare books that indeed were unique cultural pieces that contained important data for scholars and academicians. As the Republic of Azerbaijan has had to deal with a major destruction - and a terrible occupation committed by the Armenian Armed Forces - in a territory that makes up twenty percent of its sovereign territory; every international visitor is surprised and impressed by finding a well preserved Armenian church located nearby one of the central parks of Baku city.
It is sad to observe that we still have two clashing realities taking place in the heartland of the Caucasus: on one side we have the Government of Azerbaijan that is highly focused towards preserving intercultural dialogue, interfaith dialogue and working hard to promote human rights and democratic institutions; on the other side we have an Armenian Government that is rotten by corruption, domestic violence and high rates of crime, a government that violates international laws and UN Security Council Resolutions as well as occupying twenty percent of the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan, one of its neighboring countries.
Moreover Yerevan has imposed – for over two decades – economic sanctions against the Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan, sovereign territory of Azerbaijan. The world community must know that Azerbaijan is facing an economic genocide imposed by the Armenian Government against the people of Nakhchivan, regional commerce and beyond.
Interview by Yunis Abdullayev
