2 May 2024: The European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD) vehemently condemns Azerbaijan’s expansionist policies towards the Republic of Armenia, whereas currently the focus is on the Tavush region. Azerbaijan’s unwarranted territorial claims, including those on Armenia’s Tavush region and the so-called enclaves, as well as its insistence on extraterritorial transport links through Armenia’s Syunik region, are utterly unacceptable.
While refusing to withdraw its forces from more than 200 square kilometers of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia it occupies since 2021, Azerbaijan is now putting pressure on the Republic of Armenia to take control of a strategic territory in the Tavush region of Armenia. Thus, under the guise of “delimitation and demarcation” Azerbaijan is enforcing a land grab which will further aggravate the vulnerability of Armenia.
If Azerbaijan takes control of the territory of strategic importance in the Tavush region of Armenia, this will massively endanger Armenia’s interstate connection with Georgia, a vital gas pipeline for Armenia and will encircle a number of Armenian villages, which will inevitably lead to their depopulation. Apart from this, it will jeopardize the security of the Armenian region of Lori.
Despite engaging in the process, the Armenian Prime Minister has declared that this creates no solid security guarantees against a possible aggression by Azerbaijan. Thus, the current actions of the Armenian government, carried out without any guarantee of reaching a durable and dignified peace, constitute a further capitulation and are in violation of the Armenian Constitution. Furthermore, it would allow Azerbaijan to carry out a new aggression from better positions.
We are deeply convinced that Azerbaijan’s aggressive stance is accounted for by the fact that it has not been held accountable for its genocidal policy in Nagorno Karabakh/Artsakh, for the ethnic cleansing it committed towards the indigenous Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh.
The EAFJD calls on all the major actors involved, including the USA, EU and Russia to hold the Azerbaijani oil dictatorship responsible for its ongoing fascists policy towards Armenia and Armenians. As a European grassroots organization, the EAFJD deplores the double standards the EU executive has demonstrated towards the Azerbaijani dictatorship.
The EAFJD is convinced that that the continuous concessions from Armenia will fail to suppress Azerbaijan’s appetite, while the latter continues to propagate for the idea of so-called Western Azerbaijan, which entails the appropriation of almost the entire territory of the Republic of Armenia.
A united and solid resistance based on tangible force and consequences for Azerbaijan, are currently the only factors that can contain the Azerbaijani dictatorship and its expansionist agenda.