On behalf of the students of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijan Student Youth Organizations' Union (ASYOU) expresses its deepest concern with the statement issued by the European Students' Union regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

It is obvious that the ESU statement is a pure product of a subjective and biased opinion of some of the members of the ESU, orchestrated by the newly elected President who represents Armenia. The ESU cannot and must not make statements on such sensitive issues on behalf of the European students without approval of the majority if not all of its members and without prior consultations with the other side of the conflict, namely students from Azerbaijan. It is crystal clear that no organization which stands for universal humane values would disregard the international law, UN Security Council resolutions, the official position of the EU and of all its Member States as well as numerous resolutions adopted by the European Parliament, PACE, etc., which unequivocally support the territorial integrity of states. The following flaws in the statement attest to its origins, which was obviously drafted in Yerevan rather than through comprehensive dialogue and exchange among ESU member organizations and ASYOU:

1. “The Republic of Artsakh” – a separatist puppet regime established in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, which has not been recognized by any UN Member states, even Armenia. The European Court of Human Rights in its Grand Chamber Judgement on the case of Chiragov v. Armenia has adjudged that “Armenia, from the early days of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, has had a significant and decisive influence over the “NKR”, that the two entities are highly integrated in virtually all important matters and that this situation persists to this day. In other words, the “NKR” and its administration survive by virtue of the military, political, financial and other support given to it by Armenia which, consequently, exercises effective control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding territories.” Isn’t it a clear indication of occupation of sovereign territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan as was indicated also in the UN SC resolutions 822, 853, 874, and 884?!

2. Reference to Human Rights Watch – do not forget to check out the HRW report on the use of cluster ammunition by Armenia against civilians in Barda, which resulted in the death of 21 Azerbaijani civilians in a single attack. Check the link below: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/10/30/armenia-cluster-munitions-kill-civilians-azerbaijan

3. Azerbaijan was mentioned as an aggressor in the paper. Let's look at simple statistics.

- From the beginning of the intensive phase of the conflict, 91 civilians including 11 children & 27 women were killed far away from the conflict zone in different cities of Azerbaijan as a result of shelling from the territory of Armenia with ballistic missiles.

- Today nearly 1 million people are refugees or internally displaced because of Armenian occupation and ethnic cleansing for nearly 30 years. I.e. there are tens of thousands of IDP students from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan who are deprived of their intrinsic right to return to their ancestral lands. Why has the ESU been silent for 30 years for their plight?

- Thousands of innocent people were brutally killed during different massacres and atrocities committed by the Armenian armed forces, including the Khojaly massacre of 26 February 1992, which left 613 civilians dead at one night. Had the ESU made any statement on this human tragedy so far?

4. The Statement mentions hate speech in Azerbaijan:

How can Armenia, a mono-ethnic country whose population is almost 99 percent Armenian, can judge about tolerance? Unlike Armenia, there are 30,000 Armenians living in Azerbaijan today along with hundreds of thousands of other ethnic minorities.

5. The Statement builds on dubious allegations about the deployment of Syrian fighters in Azerbaijan, without any proof. Staged video recordings of interrogation of such mercenaries don’t stand any criticism. Instead, the Armenian political leadership made clear on numerous occasions that Armenian fighters from various countries, including from the Middle East are deployed in the conflict zone. An ethnically Armenian while being the national of a different country is clearly considered to be mercenary under international law if he takes part in a conflict on the territory of a foreign country.

6. Restriction on the internet in Azerbaijan is official and is supported by most of the people. The reasoning behind this decision is to lessen the spread of misinformation and footages from the front-line, which may risk the lives of soldiers and undermine the de-occupation mission.

By issuing a statement based on absurd arguments, which is not supported by any international organization or an institute, the European Students’ Union loses its validity to speak on behalf of millions of students. The one-sided statement of this organization leaves us no other choice but to assume that it serves to the sole goal of disguising the illegal acts and war crimes committed by Armenian leadership and the military, which continues its vicious attacks against the civilian population of Azerbaijan, located far away from the conflict zone. It is worth reiterating that more than 90 Azerbaijani civilians were killed, and hundreds were wounded. Though these stats outnumber those in Armenia by far, we stress that the Azerbaijani students deplore any loss of civilians from both sides. But this is probably not in the interest of the ESU to base its statement on the real facts, but rather talk about the Armenian nonsense.

The Azerbaijani students wish more than anyone else that just and eternal peace is established in the region. However, it is clear that the peace in the region will only be established as soon as all occupying Armenian forces leave the territories of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani IDPs, including children and youth, will return to their native homes in dignity and will live there in peace and multicultural environment with their Armenian compatriots. We have all moral and legal rights to urge the ESU to make a statement to this end, which will fully be in line with international law.

Therefore, we demand that the ESU withdraws its misleading statement and apologizes for this biased approach. We further demand that administrative measures are taken against ESU President Gohar Hovhanissyan for such a shameful and unlawful attempt to misuse her position. We also demand all organizations who seconded this statement to apologize especially before IDPs of Azerbaijan for the pain and insult caused by this statement. We inform you that this issue will be raised before the European institutions, which act as your donors so that all those responsible for such an unlawful and derogatory statement are held accountable for this misdeed.

ESU must apologize to all students of Azerbaijan!

#ESUMustApologize !!!