Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

At a time when the world welcomes the convict of the famous war criminal Radovan Karadzic, another war criminal Serzh Sargsyan is at the head of state.

As a result of the long lasting judicial proceedings, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced 70-years-old Karadzic to 40 years in jail.

Former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic was convicted of the genocide in Srebrenica, one of the bloodiest massacres in Europe, which took place during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

The whole mankind witnessed a triumph of justice – the famous war criminal has finally suffered a punishment. For many centuries, the world has seen brutal crimes during numerous wars; many innocent people have suffered from non-explainable cruelty.

Now it is high time for the international community to name the true perpetrator of numerous crimes against the people of Azerbaijan in late 1990s and to call to account Incumbent president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, who was the commander of breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh's military forces in 1992.

Top UN human rights official Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein welcomed the arrest of Karadzic, saying that the trial should give pause to leaders across Europe and elsewhere who seek to exploit nationalist sentiments and scapegoat minorities for broader social ills.

Sargsyan even does not deny his involvement in mass killings of Azerbaijani civilians during the Nagorno-Karabakh war, which broke out as a result of Armenia's territorial claims to Azerbaijan.

Armenia occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.

Armenia's bloodthirstiness put behind all limits when the country’s troops launched a furious attack on the Khojaly city late into night from February 25 to 26, killing 613 civilian Azerbaijanis with an unforeseen brutality.

Sargsyan led the aggressive operations in Khojaly, which is fairly recognized by many nations as Khojaly Massacre – the tragedy of the 20^th century.

Armenian barbarians disabled some 1,000 people, eradicating eight families completely. About 25 children lost one of their parents and 130 were completely deprived of their parents in the wake of an ethnic cleansing in Khojaly.

The Armenian soldiers took 1,275 innocent people hostages, 150 of them are still missing.

Unpunished crime

In 2003, Thomas De Waal, a British journalist and writer on the Caucasus, published a book based on study of Armenia and Azerbaijan during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.

The book, entitled ‘Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War’, contains numerous interviews of participants of the conflict, including some outright statements of Serzh Sargsyan.

In his interview with Waal, he concedes that "some form of ethnic cleansing" took place in Karabakh, adding that "it was not possible otherwise".

"When a shell is flying through the air, it doesn't distinguish between a civilian resident and a soldier; it doesn't have eyes. If the civilian population stays there, even though there was a perfect opportunity to leave, that means that they also are taking part in military operations."

His summation of what had happened, however, was more honest and more brutal.

“Before Khojaly, the Azerbaijanis thought that they were joking with us, they thought that the Armenians were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian population. We were able to break that [stereotype]. And that’s what happened.”

This interview throws a different light on the worst massacre of the Karabakh war, suggesting that the killings may, at least in part, have been a deliberate act of mass killing as intimidation.

Despite well-known facts, that proves fault of the incumbent president, he still has not been held accountable for his actions.

High-time for punishment

Khojaly massacre became one of the most serious crimes against not only the people of Azerbaijan, but also the humanity as a whole, and thus, this genocide is comparable to the genocides in Khatin and Srebrenica.

Azerbaijani MP Aydin Mirzazade believes that the punishment of those responsible for genocide in Srebrenica is a precedent both from historical and legal points of view. He added that it is a message that those who have committed mass crime against humanity will be punished.

Azerbaijan’s government has repeatedly appealed to the international courts in regards of Khojaly massacre, but all the attempts were fruitless, Mirzazade said. He believes that Europe is afraid to openly criticize Armenian aggressive policy, despite numerous facts.

Mirzazade believes that this proves the existence of double standards in the judicial process.

“Nevertheless, the government of Azerbaijan periodically appeals to international courts with facts and documents. We believe that sooner or later, the perpetrators will be punished,” he concluded.

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Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova

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