Today.Az » Politics » Right to self–defense - why is it "different" for Azerbaijan?
02 September 2024 [17:56] - Today.Az
Double standards are a strange phenomenon and defy logic. For all their blatant immorality, they are shamelessly used by people who seem to be not deprived of intelligence. And this causes a certain crisis in the perception of what has been said and surprise.
"Ukraine has the right to self-defense. And, according to international law, this right does not end at the border with Russia," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Welt am Sonntag. Kiev must decide for itself how to conduct its military campaign, he believes.
Earlier, Matthew Miller, a representative of the US State Department, voiced the same position at a briefing. Ukraine has the right to independently determine which operations to carry out and which goals to pursue, he said. Undoubtedly, every country has the right to self-defense. No one disputes this. The right to self-defense is granted to countries subjected to military aggression, Article 51 of the UN Charter. Despite the nuances and attempts to distort this provision of the Charter of the main organization of the planet, the right to self-defense remains in force. Every country has the right to defend itself in case of aggression. She also has every right to choose how to defend herself, of course, without going beyond the bounds of civility and international norms. No one argues with this either. Azerbaijan has used its right to self-defense to put an end to the Armenian occupation. He acted in accordance with the very Article 51. The only question is that for some reason no one recognizes this right for our country. The strange selectivity in evaluating the same situations is outrageous and ugly. It's probably high time we got used to this kind of diversity, but we don't want to do that. Azerbaijan respects itself too much for this. Statements on Kursk from NATO and the State Department once again convince that the world order is changing today for a reason - it has become too unscrupulous. The same, by the way, applies to the statement of the European Commission regarding the detention of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France.
"This is a national investigation, we do not intend to comment on it," the EC said.
Which, in principle, could be called logical if it were not for the endless "concerns" of Western structures and officials about the internal affairs of Azerbaijan. These interventions continue almost constantly, although all the issues that are puzzled in the State Department or the European Union are precisely a national investigation. Of course, we are not so naive as not to notice "two big differences". We are now talking about the system according to which. In Orwell's words, "all animals are equal, but some are more equal." The right to defend one's integrity and security, when it comes to Azerbaijan, is beginning to be compromised revisions. And self-defense qualifies as aggression. Meanwhile, all the steps taken by our country are in the logic of the right to self-defense. Let's recall some moments of the post-war years. September is on the calendar, and this month is full of dates that are disastrous for Armenia. This is the day of the beginning of the Second Karabakh War, and the day of the liberation of Khankendi, and this is the month when the Azerbaijani army managed to eliminate the Armenian threat in a number of directions. "The European Parliament strongly condemns the large-scale military aggression against numerous targets on the sovereign territory of Armenia in September 2022," and blah blah blah. Aggression?... Recall that on the night of September 13, 2022, the Armenian Armed Forces staged a large-scale provocation in the Dashkesan, Kalbajar, Lachin and Zangilan directions. The Azerbaijani Armed Forces retaliated by suppressing enemy firing points, and measures were taken to prevent the proliferation of clashes. At the same time, the Armenian side suffered losses. And the Azerbaijani side has taken advantageous positions. As President Ilham Aliyev said about those events, as a result of the September clashes on the border, "we managed to insure ourselves against big problems in the future," because revanchist forces are raising their heads in Armenia. Can someone forbid Azerbaijan to exercise its right to self-defense? He acted solely within the framework of this right. It would be beneficial for Armenia to turn the conditional border into a zone of constant tension. This was especially necessary for the Armenians and their patrons at that time. Some of the territories were still under Armenian control, and this gave hope of overplaying the situation. The same thing happened in the Zangezur direction a year earlier. In May 2021, Deputy head of the State Department's press service, Jalina Porter, said at a briefing that "the US authorities consider Azerbaijan's actions on the border with Armenia provocative and urge them to stop." As in all other cases, Azerbaijan did not heed the calls. Because he was right and exercised his legitimate right to self-defense. The Azerbaijani army was accused of allegedly infiltrating the sovereign territory of Armenia and seizing Lake Garagel. In fact, the Azerbaijani side was only returning its own and eliminating the threat posed by the occupying country, which was trying with all its might to keep at least something. Let us turn again to the words of the President of Azerbaijan. At the ceremony of raising the national flag in Kalbajar, the head of state stated that we are strengthening the state border in the direction of Kalbajar and Lachin: "This border has been in the hands of Armenians for almost 30 years, and in May, when the snow came down, we went to these borders, took up our positions, settled in Zangezur and consolidated there. This is our land. The thoughts coming from the Armenian side are absolutely unfounded. We are on our own land. Garagel is ours, other places are ours too. We came. This territory has been in the hands of Armenians for 30 years. If this border was where they say it was, then they would be standing on this border. If they were standing, they would say that this is the border. What happened? After we came and stood up, they said, no, we're standing in the wrong place. We are standing in the right place, we are standing where we need to be, and if we want to, we will stand where we think it is necessary." That's it. Clearly and to the point. Azerbaijan knows its rights very well and implements them very effectively. There were many such situations in the four post-war years. Every success of Azerbaijan is met with either hysteria or tacit rejection. By returning what belongs to us by right, who only we were not - both "aggressors" and "provocateurs". Few people were happy about our success. And none of the powerful of this world has ever told us in Stoltenberg's words: Azerbaijan has the right to self-defense. And, according to international law, this right does not end at the border with Armenia. It's time for our opponents to appear and press their fists to their chests to say: "You don't understand. This is different." Believe me, we understand everything. Even more than we would like to understand.
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