Armenia needs to be held accountable

Armenia continues to illegally, militarily occupy some 16 percent of Azerbaijan. On Nov. 12, Armenia, while holding its illegal military drills in the occupied Azerbaijani district of Aghdam, started to provoke the Azerbaijani military by flying its Russia-supplied Mi-24 military helicopters along the Line of Contact ”“ a ceasefire line established in 1994. Part of the ceasefire agreement, which Armenia signed, mandated that all heavy military equipment would be removed from the area. Armenia ignores all calls to withdraw its military and cease its illegal military occupation of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani military, acting in full compliance with domestic and international laws and obligations, destroyed one of the Armenian military helicopters, which was illegally in the Azerbaijani air space.

Azerbaijan has declared the entire airspace over the occupied territories (including Aghdam) as an Air Defense Identification Zone since 1992. Azerbaijan has been very vocal in asserting its rights, putting Armenia, as well as the International Civil Aviation Organization and the European Civil Aviation Conference on notice since 2010.

For more background on the illegal use of Azerbaijani airspace by Armenia, see U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) factsheet: http://airport.usazeris.org

I urge that you use all your influence to persuade the Obama Administration in pushing the government of Armenia to do the right thing, to comply with four U.N. Security Council resolutions and withdraw all of its occupying forces from Azerbaijan, so that the war stops for good.

The year-long tragedy that has been unveiling in Ukraine, and previously the war in Georgia, as well as elsewhere in the former USSR, shows how fragile peace can be and how pro-Western nations, such as Azerbaijan, have had an extremely difficult time since their independence in warding off military and security threats from various proxies, such as the anti-Semitic, anti-Western, pro-Iran and pro-Russian government and military of Armenia.

This needs to stop ”“ illegal Armenian flights and military drills in occupied Azerbaijan must stop. Armenia must withdraw its military from Azerbaijan.

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