Peter Oborne in Nagorno-Karbakh: Turkish-backed Jihadists Reportedly Beheaded People

We speak to award-winning journalist Peter Oborne. He discusses being on the ground in Nagorno-Karabakh during the recent Azerbaijan-Armenia war, reports of Azeri bombardment as the war progressed, the geopolitics of the war with the West taking a backseat while Russia and Turkey became major players, meeting and learning the stories of Armenian soldiers, reports of Turkish-backed Syrian jihadists committing atrocities in Nagorno-Karabakh and much more.

#Armenia #Azerbaijan #NagornoKarabakh

FOLLOW
Going Underground https://www.youtube.com/user/GoingUndergroundRT
Going Underground on Twitter http://twitter.com/Underground_RT
Afshin Rattansi on Twitter http://twitter.com/AfshinRattansi

PODCAST
https://soundcloud.com/rttv/sets/going-underground-new

Statement by Mr. Tahir Taghizade, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the UK

On “the Armenians seeing themselves as not fighting Azerbaijan but fighting the Turks”

Armenia have been trying to portray this conflict as religious or connected to a third party all to hide the root cause of it which is Armenia’s occupation and ethnic cleansing of Nagorno Karabakh and 7 adjacent districts of Azerbaijan. Moreover one cannot base its regional or foreign policy in general on imagined grievances against neighbours which stem from and further increase embedded feelings of hatred and xenophobia.

On “mainly Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh”

Nagorno Karabakh is internationally recognized integral part of Azerbaijan as stipulated in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874, 884) of 1993.

Armenian invasion of Nagorno Karabakh and 7 adjacent regions resulted in brutal massacres and ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijani civilian population. More than 800,000 Azerbaijani civilians were forcibly expelled from these territories. Together with 250,000 Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia, the number of Azerbaijani refugees exceeds 1 million. Today Azerbaijan has the largest number of refugees per capita in the world. That is one of the reasons why Mr. Oborne observed that the population of Nagorno Karabakh was mainly Armenians. Besides, being ethnically populated by a certain minority does not necessarily mean a right to illegal secession.

On “being on the ground in Nagorno-Karabakh, killing of civilians and mercenaries”

In the wake of its decade-long aggression against Azerbaijan, Armenia committed, inter alia, genocide against over 600 civilian population of Khojaly city of Azerbaijan on February 26 in 1992 and lots of other war crimes and crimes against humanity.

As a result of most recent Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan, 94 civilians have been killed and 414 were injured in deliberate attacks targeting civilians living far beyond the combat zone. Armenia launched rocket attacks twice on Ganja city in the middle of the night and then on Barda city of Azerbaijan on October 11, 17 and 28 respectively, killing dozens of kids, women and elderly. In all these attacks, Armenia used prohibited Tochka-U, SCUD and Smerch missiles against innocent civilians. These reckless attacks of Armenia on civilians and civilian infrastructure amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The fact that Armenia used cluster munitions against Azerbaijani civilians was confirmed by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

As was repetitively stated by President of Azerbaijan as well as Azerbaijan’s MFA and MOD, the Armed Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan did not fight against the civilians, including the citizens of Azerbaijan of Armenian origin, and did not target civilians and civilian infrastructure in the occupied territories.

We recall that according to public statements of high-level Armenian officials, since the outbreak of hostilities the majority of Armenians residing in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan have already left these territories for Armenia. The Azerbaijani side repeatedly appealed to those remaining in the area to stay away from military installations and refrain from taking a part in the military hostilities, since this would undermine their status as civilians and turn them into combatants.
Furthermore, worth to mention that Armenia widely used mercenaries and foreign terrorist fighters in its military operations against the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan, which have been extensively documented, including by different international media resources and foreign governments including those of Georgia and Canada.
Armenia in an open attempt to cover-up its above-mentioned wrongdoings constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity have been accusing Azerbaijan of the same with a view to diverting the attention of the international community, and to that end have been carrying out a massive campaign of fake news.

FULL STATEMENT ON RT’S WEBSITE: https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/507329-bell-arabia-yemen-karabakh/

Видео Peter Oborne in Nagorno-Karbakh: Turkish-backed Jihadists Reportedly Beheaded People канала Going Underground on RT