Armenians are in tears again

Tatoyan seized on the Gafan border village of Nerkin Kend, which lost access to pastures and arable lands of the Zangilan region after the Second Karabakh War. Azerbaijan has established its positions on the conditional border, which turned out to be several dozen meters from the Armenian houses. This fact was vigorously discussed three years ago, Armenians wrote complaints, dragged journalists and foreigners to the border, but it did not help. Because the Azerbaijani positions are located not on the territory of Armenia, but on the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan. But the Armenians should have been smarter and thought about the future.

It is clear that over the past thirty years, more than one generation of villagers have become accustomed to seeing "Armenian" lands on the other side of the border. They built their church on someone else's territory and began burying their dead there. In Zangilan, cattle were driven to pastures and engaged in agriculture there. Armenian thought is so organized that it can only walk in a straight line. Any turn, any change of direction drives our neighbors into a stupor. So are the residents of Nerkin Kenda. In the three years since February 2021, they have not learned to live without occupied lands, and they have not got used to the fact that now they will have to find resources on their own territory and adapt to the idea that they have been stealing someone else's for thirty years. That's the whole problem. The villagers' brains will not change lanes in any way. In their minds, their cows and sheep are still grazing in the lush meadows of Zangilan, which will never be available to them again. Difficulties in adapting to reality are the cause of other troubles. So, the residents of Nerkin Kend stupidly continue to drive cattle to the border minefields. Apparently, in order for the "ecologist" Tatoyan to have something to write down in his papers.

Azerbaijan is also blamed for the fact that the sources of drinking water, which were freely used by the residents of Gafan village during the occupation, now remain on the other side of the border. It is unclear what evidence Tatoyan is collecting and to whom he is going to complain in this case. What complaint does he intend to file with international authorities and against whom? Instead of whining, the villagers could gather and drill artesian wells or bring water to the village from some other source. In three years, it would be possible to reach the pipe from the Indian Ocean, and the Nerkin people are waiting for something. They probably hope for Tatoyan's victory in international courts.

The special hope of the Armenians is the theme of ecology. Especially today, on the eve of COP29. Half of Armenian politicians and experts have recently retrained as environmentalists. The ex-ombudsman, continuing to stupidly call the returned positions "occupied", is trying to prove that the Azerbaijani side is "carrying out massive illegal felling of trees." Tatoyan even counted their number and types. Examining the Azerbaijani territory with binoculars brought by Europeans, he saw that the Azerbaijanis were building military roads and at the same time, oh horror, trampling the "Armenian cornflower" listed in the Red Book (it turns out there is one?). We are no longer talking about the names of trees and fauna that Tatoyan read in Wikipedia. All of them, as it appears on his list, are on the verge of extinction.

As for the trees allegedly "massively cut down"... Probably, it would be enough just to brush off the annoying buzzing Tatoyan. But before that, let's give some facts.

According to Armenian media, in 2014-2018, more than 400 thousand cubic meters of forest were cut down in the occupied territories - almost three times more than in the same period in Armenia. These data are presented by Armenian environmentalists and cannot be attributed to the "Azerbaijani agitprop" in any way. Before the occupation, the total forest area of Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur was about 220-230 thousand hectares, of which 54 thousand hectares were cut down. A significant part of the forests of the Terter region was cut down when the occupiers decided to build a water canal from the Sarsang reservoir in order to deprive the Azerbaijani districts located downstream of the Terter River of water. The timber of the forests of Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur was highly appreciated by foreign companies involved in this outrage. Fertile lands were also used illegally and haphazardly. The Armenians sowed 100,000 hectares of grain, depleted the soil, and brought it to erosion. Many species of flora and fauna were destroyed in the nature reserves and sanctuaries that remained under the Armenian occupation. The total area of specially protected natural areas in the previously occupied territories is 43 thousand hectares. Among them is the Garagel Nature Reserve.

Garagel is one of the seven relict lakes of ecological importance in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan, which suffered from anthropogenic impact during the Armenian occupation. The Armenians began destroying the ecosphere of this border reservoir long before the Karabakh conflict. In 1964, they began to build livestock farms and powerful pumping stations on the coast, and lake water was used to irrigate the cultivated areas of the Goris district. After the occupation, the situation worsened even more. Serious damage was caused by the occupiers and the wildlife by predatory illegal hunting.

The list of crimes in Armenia that fall under the definition of "ecocide" is huge. And the "ecologist" Tatoyan can be sure that he is much bigger, more detailed and more evidence-based. Azerbaijan has received full access to this evidence after 2020, and it is being collected and systematized with the participation of foreign specialists, among others.

One can understand the feelings of an Armenian looking through binoculars at what is happening in lands that his foot will no longer set foot on. But we don't sympathize. Let's just advise Tatoyan and others: stop whining and finally start working - building, sowing, laying communications in your own country. It's time for the residents of Nerkin Kend to stop remembering how good their sheep were in the Azerbaijani meadows, how delicious the water was in the spring that remained on the other side of the border, and start looking for an alternative to all this. It's time for the neighbors to get used to the idea that it won't work to win back something, that churches that were illegally built on our lands will no longer be available to them, that illegally established cemeteries were left alone through their own fault and for the sake of visiting graves, the border will not become a passageway.

All this should have been thought about earlier. That's why a man is given a head.