Sarwar Awan
Islamabad
The Government of Azerbaijan has denied reports that militants from Syria were being deployed to help Azerbaijan’s army fight Armenia, in the war going on for more than a week.
Leyla Abdullayeva, head of the Press Service Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in a statement said, “during the last a few days, they have been witnessing a smear campaign full of lies and slander in some foreign media outlets that as if “militants from Syria being deployed to Azerbaijan.”
She said that there was no doubt that Armenia is behind these allegations, which are not based on any fact and are spread in the form of interviews with fictitious people.
Leyla further said, “The aim of this smear campaign is to attempt to compensate for the negative international public opinion created by Armenia’s recent relocation, in a demonstrative way, of representatives of terrorist organizations from the Middle East to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, which is a gross violation of international humanitarian law.”
Abdullayeva further said that there are numerous facts on the use of terrorist groups and mercenaries in military operations during the occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions of Azerbaijan by Armenia. At present, the Armenian leadership continues this policy and widely uses extremist elements against Azerbaijan as part of its new act of aggression.
She said thus, Armenia’s plan to create “voluntary militant groups” to be used for military purposes is aimed at using the “services” of terrorists who have been moved to Armenia from the Middle East for years.
Talking about Azerbaijan forces Leyla said, “Unlike Armenia, which has been, over the years, experiencing a severe demographic crisis and as a result of which it has not been able to equip its armed forces, Azerbaijan has fully-fledged armed forces, and these armed forces are so professional and strong that no external forces, especially irregular groups, are needed to achieve the set goal.”
Continuing Leyla said, “These bogus claims are incompatible from a military-technical point of view, as they lack simple logic. Various sources claim that several hundred mercenaries were allegedly brought to Azerbaijan. Then such a question arises; In the context of a possible clash of two regular armies, can a small number of irregular groups change the balance of forces? Of course, those who spread misinformation are not able to answer this question.”
She once again, categorically rejected these ugly allegations against Azerbaijan and emphasized that the Azerbaijani Army does not need any outside forces to ensure its territorial integrity within its international borders.
forces of Armenia have been continuing to target the civilian population, private houses and other civilian infrastructure in residential areas along the line of contact in a gross violation of its obligations under international humanitarian law, including the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
Civilian facilities, such as hospitals, medical centers, school buildings and kindergartens have been subjected to indiscriminate shelling of armed forces of Armenia, including from artillery and other large-caliber weaponry. Electricity and energy infrastructure was damaged in the residential areas. Gas lines in the Borsunlu and Hulabandi villages, and several neighbourhoods in the administrative center of the Tartar district were targeted by armed units of Armenia.
Meanwhile, the armed
