Ecocide against the environment in the Lachin district

Each of us in the twenty-first century recognizes the negative effects of climate change on the future of the earth and strives to mitigate them as much as possible. The global community is attempting to warn international organizations and states about the magnitude of the disasters that await us in the future by organizing various events.

However, some states, knowing the disaster that awaits the earth as a result of climate change, not only participate in the fight against it but also encourage the acceleration of this process through their actions. The Republic of Armenia’s atrocities in Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories are a clear example of this.

Armenia, which has illegally and militarily occupied Azerbaijani lands for nearly 30 years, ignoring all international documents, including four UN Security Council resolutions, was forced to surrender and withdraw from the occupied territories only after the 44-day war that began on September 27, 2020.

Notwithstanding the humiliation and pain that Azerbaijanis have endured over the last 30 years, with 30,000 lives lost and 4000 people missing, the Azerbaijani government and its armed forces treated the Armenians illegitimately settled in Azerbaijani territories humanely, giving them enough time to pack and leave their temporary “homes,” and even extending the time they were given to leave when necessary. But before they left, they packed everything they owned and set fire to their homes. And they will continue to do so. They never considered the places they lived to be their homes. In recent days, Armenians fleeing Azerbaijan’s Lachin district have also begun to burn forests.

The main point to be emphasized here is that the vast majority of the perpetrators are Armenians from Syria and Lebanon, who were illegally resettled in the lands occupied by the Republic of Armenia. By doing this, Armenia also violates paragraph 6 of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in time of War of 12 August 1949.

According to a joint declaration signed by Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, Azerbaijan is set to retake control of Lachin, which lies on the route between the city of Khankendi in Karabakh and Armenia, by the end of this month.

Russian troops and the Armenian population will leave the areas along the “Lachin corridor,” which includes Lachin, Zabuh, and Sus, and it was temporarily placed under Russian control by a tripartite declaration signed on November 10, 2020, after 44 days of the conflict.

As part of the agreement, Azerbaijan constructed a 32-kilometer (20-mile) road around Lachin for the Armenian population in Karabakh to use on their way to and from Armenia.

According to APA, environmental non-governmental organizations in Azerbaijan held an event related to environmental terrorism committed by Armenians illegally settled in Azerbaijan’s territories in Lachin and the surrounding areas.

Many environmental organizations condemned the environmental terrorism committed by Armenians in Lachin and the surrounding areas, stating that all of this is deliberate damage to the environment by burning the forest areas around Lachin. The participants noted that this process is a clear manifestation of the Armenian government’s pathological hatred for Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani people, as well as their hatred for nature, Azerbaijan’s natural resources, and the ecological environment.

According to the appeal, the Republic of Azerbaijan is always working to protect the ecological balance and ensure that its citizens live in a healthy environment, and non-governmental organizations play an important role in this process across the globe.