Is it no longer "different" for Armenia?

Armenia does not understand the difference between international law and its Armenian interpretation. 

For a long time, it looked as if international law itself was written in order to justify and support the crimes and ambitions of the Armenians. The Armenian side got used to it and began to think that it could not be otherwise. And he still thinks so.

The confidence in our neighbors' impunity did not arise out of nowhere, it was formed for quite objective reasons. How can you not feel like chocolate if you have never even received a verbal rebuke from international organizations for the numerous crimes you have committed?

Habit, as they say, is second nature. Having got used to comfort, Armenia hoped very much that with the beginning of the 44-day war, all the thunder of heaven would fall on Azerbaijan, it would be stopped, branded, condemned and everything would remain the same. When it became clear that Baku had a reliable lightning rod in the form of international law, the Armenian side began to successfully collect dirt, or rather, compose it. Armenia has been trying to apply this far-fetched compromising material to the case for all four post-war years, but it does not succeed in any way.

The day before, taking advantage of the events in Ukraine, the Armenian agitprop again rummaged through the archives and began to squeeze into the international agenda, waving facts that did not take place in reality and demanding attention to his beloved. Once, when the world condemned the situation with Crimea, Armenia demanded not to compare it with the occupation of Azerbaijani territories. "This is different," the Armenians and the lobby said.

 However, after the Second Karabakh War, they suddenly changed their view to "something else", and now, as soon as a suitable context appears, they try to turn attention to themselves, who allegedly experienced "the same thing". Armenia is trying hard to "open the eyes" of the world community, to draw its attention to what it failed to do as a chopping block for Baku four years ago.

Information about medical institutions in Karabakh affected during the 44-day war has begun to be thrown into the social network X. The storyteller and provocateur Tigran Balayan, who simultaneously performs the duties of Armenia's ambassador to the EU, did not stay away. He posted a post in which he talked about the "systematic and intense shelling of hospitals" in Karabakh by the Azerbaijani army, while referring to the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report published in February 2021. The organization conducted a study on attacks on medical institutions and drew appropriate conclusions, which are quite, but not quite satisfactory to the Armenian side.

The report specifically states that there were no dead or wounded during the shelling. This suggests that the strikes were not carried out on the hospitals themselves. And the blown-out windows and shattered walls of the building are the result of an explosion that occurred nearby. In all cases, the organization's experts had to admit that combat positions, ammunition depots and other military facilities were located near hospitals and hospitals. 

Take, for example, the Agderinsky Military Hospital. During a conversation with the workers, the experts accidentally found out that there was a warehouse of anti-personnel mines a hundred meters away. The use of anti-personnel mines in itself violates the relevant international convention, and storing them near a medical facility is a blatant exposure of the civilian population. "Theoretically, the antipersonnel mine depot could be a legitimate military target, and the Armenian forces, by placing such an object in the immediate vicinity of the hospital, endangered both staff and patients," the authors of the report state.

Let's move on. Agderinsky district hospital, allegedly purposefully shelled by the Azerbaijani side. HRW would like to stand with both feet on the side of the occupiers, but it does not work. The authors of the report had to admit that the Armenians themselves had put the hospital under attack. "Satellite images show dozens of firing positions and earthen mounds that were located in the hospital area by September 27 (2020 - ed.), some at a distance of only 350 m. These positions are especially noticeably concentrated in the eastern part of the city and oriented towards the front line. Judging by satellite images, as of October 8, some of them had large equipment, which may indicate their continued use. We received a video from reliable local sources on October 6: in the frame, personnel are moving along Sakharova Street about 100 m south of the entrance to the hospital."

The report is extensive, much more detailed and broader than the report on the shelling of Azerbaijani towns and villages by Armenians during the 44-day war. But the human rights organization could not pass an unambiguous, categorical verdict.
Foreign journalists who were reporting from Khankendi in those days were more harsh in their assessments. Yerevan took Western reporters to the lands under its control at that time, counting on information support. In many cases, expectations were met, but not always.

Ukrainian military and political commentator Alexander Kovalenko in the Odessa Courier and on his Facebook page exposed the fake Armenian side about the alleged shelling of the maternity hospital in Khankendi. After the attack on Barda, which killed 21 people and injured 70, Armenia needed some kind of counterweight to divert attention from the crime it had committed. For this purpose, a fake was launched about the shelling of a maternity hospital in Khankendi by Azerbaijani aircraft (later it turned into Turkish F-16s in the media, allegedly acting on the personal order of the Turkish president).

"Firstly, as soon as the first photos from the site of the defeat of the maternity hospital in Stepanakert (Khankendi) appeared, and not just unsubstantiated statements, I had a dissonance. When it was said in the reports of Russian and Armenian sites about the blow to the maternity hospital, wards immediately appeared in my head, from which women in labor were fleeing in panic, enveloped in smoke and fumes. Meanwhile, in the photo we were shown some empty rooms, without basic furniture and as if they were under repair at the time of destruction. 

That is, roughly speaking, the room was uninhabited. Secondly, and this is the most interesting thing, we were shown the head of the very bomb that was allegedly dropped on the maternity hospital. But the thing is that there are no heads left from bombs that are so well preserved after the fall, and what we were shown is the head from the 9M33 anti-aircraft missile systems, which are used in anti-aircraft missile systems in service with the Armenian army, the same TOR-M2KM," he wrote Kovalenko.

Lithuanian photojournalist Vidmantas Balkunas prepared a series of reports from Khankendi in those days. Describing his impressions, the Lithuanian admits that what he saw in the war zone is at odds with the replicated fiction of Armenian propaganda. In Khankendi, he saw something completely different from what he expected, or rather, not what was talked about in Yerevan. It was said in Yerevan that Khankendi was destroyed. 

The Lithuanian did not manage to see the destruction, even though he drove through the whole city. But Balkunas was especially struck by how the Armenians set up the civilian population. "I am not strong in military law, but it is difficult for me to understand how civilians and armed military are in one place in a civilian building? How, then, can attacks on civilian targets be condemned?... In this case, it is necessary to accept all the rules of the game. If your rocket launchers are hidden in a city square, which is then destroyed by enemy artillery, you can not be outraged that civilians were killed. Or how can you blame the enemy for the destruction of the House of Culture if there was a warehouse of military supplies?" - the Lithuanian photojournalist asked himself.

Unbiased military experts from other countries, both during and after the Second Karabakh War, repeatedly stressed that the Azerbaijani army, striking, calculated everything and did not hit where it would have to in the desire to simply destroy and destroy. The targets were chosen carefully, based on operational information. Take, for example, the projectile that flew through the House of culture in Shusha. 

The Armenian side made a big fuss about this fact, but then had to admit that a military gathering was taking place in this room at that moment. Not a single civilian was killed. Or let's remember the same fake about the Khankendinsky maternity hospital. 

This story did not have time to serve the agitprop for a long time, because it was exposed almost immediately. Not only was the maternity hospital under repair at the time of the shelling, but military personnel were stationed there instead of women in labor and babies. And who does not remember the meeting of the separatist gang led by Araik in the building of the Khankendinsky kindergarten? The press service of the separatist gangs was also in the wrong place - in the school shooting range.

The truth is this. And what do Ambassador Balayan and other Armenian talking heads want to prove? It's nothing. They just hope to get Azerbaijan's condemnation under the guise. Yeah, I suppose it's not "different" for the Armenian side anymore.