WASHINGTON – Ambassador Varuzhan Nersesyan, the representative of the Republic of Armenia to the United States, discussed on September 28 the ongoing Azerbaijani aggression against Artsakh which began on Sunday, September 27. He noted that its scale is much larger than the April 2016 clashes and that given the reckless nature of the dictatorships in Baku and Ankara, it is not possible to predict whether the violence might spread to the territory of the Republic of Armenia.
When asked what was the cause of this crisis, Amb. Nersesyan responded, “I would say it was a very calculated attempt on the part of Azerbaijan and Turkey.” He emphasized the premeditated nature of the attack, citing several supporting factors. He said, “This is a very well-prepared act of aggression against Nagorno Karabakh. Azerbaijan has recently accumulated enormous amounts of military supplies and weapons and conducted largescale war drills just weeks ago with Turkey.”
He pointed to a false flag operation with an historical parallel, declaring, “In preparation for this war, Azerbaijan carried out the same maneuver conducted by Adolf Hitler in 1939 prior to invading Poland. Germany staged a false attack by Poland against Germany. Right now, Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, according to this same logic, before its own attack accused Armenia of concentrating forces along the Azerbaijani border. This is a completely false narrative.”
In further support of this, as Nersesyan reported during the July 2020 clashes, he noted that Azerbaijan has openly disregarded and refused the proposal of the cochairs of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] Minsk Group to establish a mechanism to monitor ceasefire violations and discover which party is responsible each time. Nersesyan said, “The fact that Azerbaijan has refused this vociferously and continuously, and Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh have agreed to it, is a key piece of evidence that shows that Azerbaijan is attempting to avoid its responsibility for this ceasefire violation and the concomitant crimes of attacks on civilian infrastructures and the people of Nagorno Karabakh.”
Not only has Azerbaijan declined to accept such monitoring but, Nersesyan said, in preparation for this attack, its president and leadership in general have been publicly denouncing the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group in general, calling them meaningless and useless, and proclaiming that Azerbaijan may resort to force at any time to carry out its will.
Connecting the dots, Nersesyan concluded, “The current attacks are nothing but the implementation of a decades-long policy of aggression on the part of Azerbaijan. It is on the record and the responsibility cannot be avoided.”
