World marks 64th anniversary of Human Rights Day
The world community marked the 64th anniversary of the international Human Rights Day on Monday, December 10.
Human Rights Day presents an opportunity, every year, to celebrate human rights, highlight a specific issue, and advocate for the full enjoyment of all human rights by everyone everywhere.
This year, the spotlight is on the rights of all people - women, youth, minorities, persons with disabilities, indigenous people, the poor and marginalized - to make their voices heard in public life and be included in political decision-making, according to the UN website.
International organizations and governments have made efforts to achieve progress on human rights in past years and numerous documents have been signed on their protection. However, a lot of problems remain with human rights in numerous countries. Thus, with escalation of armed conflict and new wars and also protracted disputes violations of human rights are increasing. The delaying settlement of problems hinders the efforts on the protection of human rights worldwide.
The Azerbaijan Republic, which has been suffering from the policy of aggression and terrorist activities of neighboring Armenia for many years, is an example of crude rights abuses. Over centuries Armenians have committed gruesome acts against the Azerbaijani people. Nonetheless, all their actions remain unpunished, and big powers tend to turn a blind eye to this injustice and keep silent on the suffering of Azerbaijani people.
Armenia's territorial claims in the late 1980s and the military aggression in 1988-1994 resulted in the occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and also seven surrounding regions - Aghdam, Fizuli, Lachin, Gubadli, Jabrail, Zangelan and Kalbajar. About a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and IDPs in the aftermath of the brutal 1990s war fought between the two South Caucasus republics.
In Nagorno-Karabakh, adjacent regions and the regions bordering on Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh about 700,000 people were deprived of their places of residence and turned into IDPs. They are temporarily settled in 62 cities and regions of Azerbaijan in more than 1,600 densely populated areas.
One of the most tragic events of the 20th century, which was a gross violation of human rights, occurred during the Karabakh war in 1992 in Khojaly. 613 people were killed, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 elderly people, on February 26, 1992 during the attack on the town. A total of 1,000 civilians were disabled during the mass killings. Eight families were annihilated, 130 children lost one parent, and 25 lost both. Also, 1,275 innocent residents were taken hostage, while the fate of 150 remains unknown.
The European Azerbaijanis Congress (EAC) is conducting a campaign over the Human Rights Day to collect signatures for the recognition of Khojaly genocide, Trend news agency reported on Monday referring to the State Committee on Work with the Diaspora. The purpose of the initiative is to inform the world community about the fact that the tragedy, which took place in the late 20th century, is a crime not only against the people of Azerbaijan, but also one of the worst crimes against humanity.
EAC plans to send petitions to the socio-political entities of the EU urging recognition and due political assessment of the Khojaly genocide.
The group called on diaspora organizations of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis living abroad to join the initiative.
Besides, Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek said in his address on the occasion of the 64th anniversary of the Human Rights Day that the occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia violates the rights of one million Azerbaijanis that were expelled from their homes, Trend reported referring to Anadolu agency.
Cicek urged the international community to heed attention to human rights violations around the world.
When referring to the refugee problem, one must not forget the deportation of the Azerbaijani people from Armenia. For many years Armenia committed an ethnic cleansing policy towards Azerbaijanis. In 1948-1952, 150,000 Azerbaijanis were made to leave their homes, according to the website of the State Committee for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons.
This was an integral part of the hostile policy of Armenia, along with historical falsifications, distortions, changing of the historical names of Azerbaijani lands, and transformation of Armenia into a mono-ethnic state.
Besides, 250,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from their native lands and became refugees as a result of the latest ethnic cleansing perpetrated against Azerbaijanis in the territory of Armenia from 1988, as the Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan emerged, until 1992.
In this case, what human rights can we talk about at a time Armenia continues its terrorist acts and creates obstacles for the process of negotiations over the resolution of the long-standing conflict?
The international community still tolerates this injustice towards the Azerbaijani people and the violation of their rights and fails to take action against Armenia to facilitate a settlement of the conflict.
A team of diplomats from the United States, Russia and France, co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, has been working to reach a solution to the bitter dispute, but peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its pullout from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions, though these resolutions are mandatory.
Therefore, international organizations and big powers should take more decisive steps in the resolution of the conflict and urge Armenia to abandon its policy of aggression.