Karabagh.com - Virtual Azerbaijan (VAR)

"We want peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We want peace in the Caucasus region. We want peace in Southern Caucasus. And, therefore, we are putting up with this difficult situation. But patience has its limits. You should know, the entire OSCE should know, the Minsk Group should know and the United Nations should know that an end must be put to this injustice against Azerbaijan."
Heydar Aliyev, then President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, addressing the visiting OSCE delegation headed by the chair, Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner, on July 18, 2000 in Baku.

"As a matter of law, Armenian army troop involvement in Azerbaijan makes Armenia a party to the conflict and makes the war an international armed conflict, as between the government of Armenia and Azerbaijan. "The Republic of Armenia has become a party to the conflict by virtue of its committment of troops to fight in Azerbaijan against the Azerbaijani armed forces. Armenia also gives substantial support to the rebels [of Nagorno Karabakh region]... "Armenia has used its armed forces to conduct hostilities on Azerbaijani territory against members of the Azerbaijani armed forces... "The Republic of Armenia has claimed that all Armenian citizens participating in hostilities in Nagorno Karabakh [region] or [remainder of] Azerbaijan are merely 'volunteers.' Human Rights Watch / Helsinki found that this claim is not true... "In addition to committing troops to the conflict against Azerbaijan and in support of the Nagorno Karabakh rebels, the Republic of Armenia also has provided material aid to the rebels...

SEVEN YEARS OF CONFLICT IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH

   Now the longest-running conflict in the former Soviet Union, the battle for Nagorno-Karabakh has rapidly expanded and intensified since it began in 1988, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 25,000 soldiers and civilians and the displacement of one million others. What began with demonstrations calling for the unification of the Republic of Armenia with Nagorno-Karabakh, a largely Armenian [populated] region of Azerbaijan, became a full-scale war in 1992. In 1993, the war spilled into other parts of Azerbaijan as Karabakh Armenian forces, often with the support of the Republic of Armenia, conducted massive offensive military operations into the Azeri-populated provinces surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. A frail cease-fire was achieved in May 1994, but large, well-equipped armies still face each other over a deserted, ruined landscape in the Azeri lowlands around Karabakh. In December 1994, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe decided to dispatch a multinational peacekeeping force, the specifics of which have yet to be arranged.

   During the conflict, the armies of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the self-proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, have all committed egregious violations of the rules of war. Such offenses include forced displacement, looting and burning of homes, hostage taking and holding, mistreatment and summary executions of prisoners of war, and indiscriminate use of air power against civilian targets. Focusing on 1993-1994, the report concludes that Karabakh Armenian forces with the support of the Republic of Armenia were responsible for the majority of abuses during that period.

Human Rights Watch / Helsinki
Quotes and backcover self-description from: Seven Years of Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh
December 1994, 136 pp., ISBN 1-56432-142-8