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Akbar Novruz

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Today, during a session at the Baku Military Court, a video of former Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan's 1993 address to members of the "Yerkrapa" terrorist organization was presented as evidence in the ongoing trial related to Armenia's crimes during its military aggression against Azerbaijan, Azernews reports.

The video, recorded on July 23, 1993, captures Ter-Petrosyan explicitly acknowledging and justifying the occupation of Azerbaijan’s sovereign territories by Armenian armed forces. In his speech, he defended the goals and motives of the Armenian national movement, expressing satisfaction over what he called "historic victories."

Referring to the forced displacement of Azerbaijanis from Armenia, Ter-Petrosyan stated: “There were 170 thousand Azerbaijanis in Armenia until 1988… Imagine if they were still living here, we wouldn’t have a state today. We wouldn’t have been able to protect our northern regions or the Goycha (Sevan) region.”

He further claimed that the so-called “national liberation struggle” had resolved a centuries-old issue by “completely cleansing Armenia and Karabakh of other peoples,” which he described as a pivotal achievement that the Armenian people would appreciate for generations to come.

Ter-Petrosyan added: “Thanks to this action, Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have solved a problem that the Armenian people have not been able to solve for 600 years… Now this problem has been solved. This is the Armenian national movement and its military wing.”

Concluding his remarks in the footage, he boasted: “As the crown of all our victories, our forces entered Agdam last night and this morning.”

The video evidence is part of broader legal proceedings targeting Armenian citizens accused of grave international crimes including crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes, genocide, terrorism, and the financing of terrorism. The trial also covers charges related to the aggressive war launched by Armenia, the violation of international humanitarian law, and the forcible seizure and retention of power.

The proceedings are seen as a significant step by Azerbaijan in holding perpetrators of the 1990s aggression accountable and documenting the policy of ethnic cleansing and occupation publicly admitted by Armenia’s former leadership.