1/17 The major problem with Armenia's position is that they are putting their own historical truths ahead of the international law. Their justification of the occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan is based on cultural & religious importance they attach to #Karabakh.
2/17 The cessation they pursued in the early 1990s were not done through a proper due process. When they held the so call referendum in Sept 1991, Azerbaijanis were expelled from Stepanakert. #Shusha - the major Azerbaijani city in NK - had already been under siege for>2 years.
3/17 Once Armenian forces (both from Armenia & NK + third parties) took the control of NK in the late 1991-early 1992, they did not stop and extended their military operations beyond #NagornoKarabakh & occupied much larger territories-7 adjacent regions where no Armenians lived.
4/17 The occupation of the internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan was not carried out by the military forces of Armenia more than the local Armenian forces. It is also known that Armenians coming from the Middle East & some Russian forces also joined them.
5/17 Initially, their justification (which was not still reasonable) for the occupation of the adjacent regions, which is, taken together, much larger than #NagornoKarabakh, was linked to the security of #NK, but later their territorial claim was extended to the adjacent regions.
6/17 In the >2 decades & a half lasting negotiations, Armenia did not approach the idea of returning any piece of the territory it has occupied, only conditioned the return of the surrounding regions on the recognition of the independence of the self-proclaimed NK by Azerbaijan.
7/17 Armenia ended even this prospect when they declared the so called Republic of Artsakh through a 'referendum' held in 2017, by which they included in their so called borders the 7 adjacent regions where no Armenians lived before & from where 700,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled
8/17 Making territorial claims based on its own culture and historical truths and pursuing them through a violent way is the middle-centuries norm or mindset combined with nationalism that Armenia has been pursuing. Armenians have similar claims against Georgia and Turkey.
9/17 Trying to get a legal status for the events that occurred 105 years ago is based on a similar logic of building the future by trying to bring its own historical truths in rather than the current norms. (Of course, the 1905 events should be remembered and discussed openly)
10/17 I am trying to imagine: what would happen if all nations on the earth made territorial claim justified with their own culture and historical truths against other nations and pursued them through a violent way???.
11/17 Or similarly, What would it bring us to deploy today's legal frameworks retrospectively? How far can we go back in the history? Why 1915 but not, for instance, 1813? How widely can we apply today's international legal frameworks retrospectively? So many questions...
12/17 This middle centuries mindset that the nationalist segments in Armenia picked up and carefully pursued from the late 19th century through the Soviets and the independence movement of Armenia has become a state policy and continued after independence until today.
13/17 We cannot & should not avoid telling the truth about this mindset. Unfortunately, to keep their 'balanced' approach & personal credits up, some foreign experts reject to say these things openly. Their neutrality does not help but only serves the continuation of this mindset
14/17 It is time to say Armenia openly that they have to end the occupation of the internationally recognised territories of Azerbaijan & that the cessation process those in NK pursued in 1991 was not done through a due process.
15/17 The general boundaries of the solution to the conflict have been there already for a long time. Armenia must withdraw its forces from, first, the surrounding regions, then Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijanis should return their homes first in the surrounding regions, then in NK.
16/17 Only after this, we can talk about how a proper self-determination process can be carried out by Armenians & in which territories. Why should the fate of the majorly Azerbaijani populated Shusha city - internationally recognised part of #Azerbaijan -be determined by others?
17/17 Now rejecting for 30 years to go through a normal reconciliation process, they have led us to a war. Some brave people should come up in #Armenia and reject this middle-centuries' mindset combined with nationalism and lead Armenians out of this.
***in 4/17 thread: 'not' was mistakenly put.
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