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Qabil Ashirov

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The Armenian lobby and government continue to waste their money and energy in vain in needless work. To form public opinion and to hide their failure, they bribe any unknown and notorious persons or organizations to deliver pro-Armenian statements and later start circulating the same statements. Take Luis Moreno Ocampo, for example. Previously, he was well-known for bribes and failures in his career. When he gave a statement about the so-called genocide, the Armenian lobby, and mass media started to promote him. He began to give interviews with different media bribed by the lobby. However, it did not help Hayk but Ocampo's assets increased. After Ocampo failure, Armenians found an organization called the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention. The institution prepared a report and released a statement. Remaining true to their habits, Armenian mass media started to promote the Institution.

However, reading the reports, some dare to say the Institution fooled Armenia. It seems that despite receiving bunches of money, the Institution did not take the issue seriously. They just filled the report with a thesis from Armennews or other Armenian state media. Frankly speaking, the report reminded me of anti-Tom literature. As is known, Anti-Tom literature consists of 19 books written in the XIX century that intended to praise slavery, but the writers were so novice that every sentence contradicted realities and caused disgust against slavery.

Needless to say, the report is biased. It used only Armenian or Pro-Armenian sources, it used neither Azerbaijani nor any impartial resources. Even the report's biased approach extended to such a degree that when it spoke about the history of Garabagh, it overlooked Movses Kaghankatvatsi which was written in Armenian.

The report hopes it could pressure Azerbaijan to accept "self-determination for the people of artsakh." For some reason, it does not speak about the right of self-determination Azerbaijanis in the Zangazur, Goycha, and Alaverdi districts in Armenia. Besides, the Lemkin Institution betrays American values as well. As is known, when the southern states of the USA withdrew and declared their self-determination in 1861 over disagreement on slavery, Washington retaliated with iron and blood. The Civil War which lasted 4 years erupted in America. It is not the only disrespect demonstrated by the organization. The report several times repeated the term of "republic artsakh" which is not recognized by the USA. Even Armenia has not recognized it. On the contrary, America recognise the region as an integral part of Azerbaijan.

Supporting Armenian rhetoric, the report tries to justify the separatist action with the decline of the Armenian population from 94.4 percent to 77 percent in Garabagh over 70 years during the USSR. I would like to remind the author(s) that after the Soviet Union, the population of Armenia decreased by 30 percent over 30 years. During the Soviet Union, Armenians were the second biggest nation in the South Caucasus. Today, Armenians are the third biggest nation after Georgians in the region. We express our "gratitude" to Lemkin that it has not related this decline of the Armenian population to Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, the figure is not reasonable. Because the report claims that before the USSR, Armenians made up 95 percent of the population, even during the Garabagh Khanate. The report continues that the number of Armenians amounted to 330,000 in 1918, and after Azerbaijan’s attack with 5,000 soldiers 20,000 Hayk were killed and the percentage dropped to 20 percent.

Reading the Lamkin report, I have no other option but to think that Armenians in Garabagh were so chicken that 5 percent of the population, i.e. Azerbaijanis, cowed them to subjugation. Otherwise, Lamkin must explain the issue, of how 5 percent could dominate over 95 percent during Garabagh Khanate or how 5,000 soldiers armed with light riffles subjugated 330,000 people in the mountainous area. In reality, Garabagh Khans and later Azerbaijan could subjugate them because the percentage of Armenians was less than 20 percent. It started to inflate starting from the Russian invasion and continued during the USSR.

Proving its unfounded accusation, Lamkin also manipulates the facts. For example, it claims that as a result of pogroms in Sumgayit, Baku, and Ganja city, Azerbaijanis were subjected to attacks in Gugark and were obliged to migrate to Azerbaijan. Actually, any person who read Thomas de Waals' book "Black Garden" knows that Armenians deported Azerbaijanis living in Kapan in October 1987. When deportation was completed in mid-February 1988, the separatists in Garabagh declared its separation from Soviet Azerbaijan. So, it explains to us that fearing that Azerbaijanis in Kapan could demand self-determination, Armenians first deported them, and then required self-determination. As for Sumgayit pogrom, it started at the end of February in 1988, more precisely, it happened after 4 months of Kapan pogrom. In addition, the author(s) ignored the fact that one of the bandits who partook in the Sumpayit pogrom is called Eduard Grigoriyan. He was arrested by the Soviet Internal Ministry. After the trial, he was extradited to Soviet Armenia and the same person was released at the Airport in Yerevan.

In addition, the organization plays with figures, as well, to form public opinion. It inflates the number of Armenians killed in Azerbaijan to 178-570 and decreases the number of Azerbaijanis killed in Armenia to 21. However, the number of killed Azerbaijanis during the deportation was 215.

Crying crocodile tears, the institution expresses its "concern" over ethnical cleansing and genocide. However, it has never expressed its concern over 750,000 IDPs expelled by Armenia from their hometowns in the 1990s.

So we can prolong the list and answer all the claims of the report. However, the report was filled with ungrounded information that I do not want to waste either my time or my readers'. So, it is crystal clear that like Ocompo, the Armenian side will not get anything this time as well. In short, there is nothing new in Lemkin's report, and the organization simply defrauded Armenians.

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Qabil Ashirov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @g_Ashirov

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