Shahla Humbatova reached out to Melania Trump and Michael Pompeo.

To:

Mrs. Melania Trump

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo

Shahla Humbatova, Azerbaijan

20th of October, 2020

Dear Mrs Trump and Secretary Pompeo!

In February 2020 the US Department of State has recognized me the prestigious Woman of Courage award. In addition to the sense of pride for this recognition I also had the honor of personally meeting the First Lady of the United States and the US Secretary of State. Both of you have shared my joy at the award ceremony. Now, I would like to share my sorrow with you.

It is not easy to express with words the sorrow I feel. Look at this picture of a father holding the dead body of his 10-months old daughter as he is taking it to the cemetary. This man's name is Teymur Khaligov. He lost five members of his family in one night, including his wife and a baby girl... Three year-old Khadija has seen her entire family – father, mother, 1.5-year old younger sister – die and Khadija is now alone in the world.

These families were the residents of the city of Ganja in Azerbaijan. These people were attacked by missiles fired from Armenia while they were asleep in their beds being 100 kilometres away from the conflict zone. I myself have lived in Ganja, and that is why the tragedy of these people and this city is my personal tragedy. The man on the picture, Teymur Khaligov, has buried a piece of myself together with his daughter, and a piece of every Azerbaijani regardless of where in the world they live...

One-fifth or 20 percent of my country, the Republic of Azerbaijan, has been occupied by Armenia. These areas comprise of the Nagorno-Karabakh and seven more adjacent areas. As a result of the ethnic cleansing conducted by the government of Armenia, more than 20,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis were killed, those who survived were driven out of their homes and it has been more than 30 years that more than one million people have been living in various parts of Azerbaijan as refugees or internally displaced people. As a result of the Armenian aggression, close to 4,000 Azerbaijanis are missing, among them 67 children, 265 women, and 326 elderly. There is still no information as to their fate. More than 2,000 Azerbaijanis were taken prisoner and hostage by the Armenians.

The global community has unequivocally recognized and supported the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan's just position is based on the norms of the international law. In response to the invasion of the Azerbaijani territory, the UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions back in 1993 – (numbers 822, 853, 874, and 884.) These resolutions affirm the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the inviolability of the international borders of the Republic of Azerbaijan and call for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all Armenian occupying forces from its lands, demand that all refugees and internally displaced persons return to their homes, and require the restoration of mutual relations.

However, despite the fact that it has been 27 years since the adoption of these resolutions, our lands are still under foreign occupation, and one million people are still unable to return home. Imagine for an instant that one's home has invaded with weapons, the home's owner and their family were thrown out, and they cannot return there for 30 years. It is hard to imagine, is it not? My people have been living this fate for 30 years now.

For 30 years, Azerbaijan has attempted to resolve the conflict by peaceful means, it engaged in talks, held constructive negotiating positions, and proposed compromise. However, Armenia's position has been the opposite all this time, it has clearly demonstrated its unwillingness to withdraw from the occupied lands, and wantonly disregarding the opinion of the world community and the norms of the international law, it has refused to implement the UN resolutions, and continued its aggressive policies.

Back in 1993, Armenia refused to adhere to the cease-fire achieved with with the help of the international mediators. It has engaged in continuous provocations and broken the cease-fire regime, targeted and killed civilians and military personnel, even refusing to call a temporary truce. Finally, the current leadership of Armenia has set forward a slogan of "New war for the sake of new territories," and escalated the situation to such a level that the Azerbaijani state was forced to respond and defend itself. For 21 days, we have been in the state of war on the Azerbaijani lands. The Azerbaijani Armed Forces are waging a just war to restore the nation's territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. The Azerbaijanis can no longer abide by being refugees on their own land. Hundreds of thousands of people want to return home.

The Azerbaijani army is liberating our lands step by step, inch by inch, and the occupying Armenian army is forced to withdraw from the lands it has been occupying. In short, Azerbaijan is implementing the UN Security Council resolutions.

In response, Armenia is targeting our civilian populations with missiles. Ganja is the second largest city of Azerbaijan with a dense population. This city is located some 60 miles (100 km) away from the war zone and the occupied territories. Please note that the military operations are taking place in a completely different region far from Ganja, that is why the civilians in the city have been living their normal lives not expecting any danger. However, on 4 October everything has changed for them – in the late night hours, the civilians have been hit by missiles fired from the territory of Armenia as they were sleeping. One person died, 30 were injuried, and apartment complexes were destroyed.

And since that night no one was able to go on with their peaceful lives anymore.

On 10 October at 2 am, Armenia targeted the city of Ganja once again, this time, 10 died and 40 were injured. On 17 October at 1 am Ganja was targeted by the internationally banned SCUD missiles once again, this time killing 16 civilians, including five babies, and injuring 55. The entire area of the city was completely destroyed and turned to dust. Hundreds of people have seen dreams, smiles, hopes, shimmering in the eyes, and plans for the future buried under the ruins and destroyed.

The Armenian Armed Forces have been targeting the city of Mingechevir with missiles. Mingechevir is located some 80 miles (130 km) from the war zone. It is the site of the water reservoir and hydroelectric power station of vital importance to the people of Azerbaijan. Damage to these civilian sites would lead to unimaginable human catastrophe. The defensive forces of Azerbaijan managed to destroy the missiles and repel these attacks. However, next time, the outcome might be entirely different...

The fact that the Armenian Armed Forces attacked the city of Ganja, located 60 miles (100 km) from the war zone, with banned SCUD missiles used against the city devoid of legitimate military targets, as well as the attacks against Mingechevir civilian sites constitute a war crime. However, for some reason the international community is ignoring these war crimes, does not call on the criminals to stop this terror, and does not demand that they be punished.

We have lived for 30 years with the hope for peace, tried to achieve the end of our nation's occupation through negotiations, and seeing that the opposing party is unwilling to do so, we started to defend out lands with force in order to restore the nation's territorial integrity and return people forcibly thrown out of their homes to their homelands, with the hope of restoring justice, and finally see peace, prosperity, and development come to our region. Our nation is fighting for these reasons. However, there are also rules of conduct during wars and military confrontations. Armenia, however, is ignoring the international law now just the way it has all this time by killing civilians, children, and the elderly. The hate toward Azerbaijanis has killed all their humanity, as if it is the very humaneness that has become the target, 10-months old babies are being killed for the sole reason of being ethnically Azerbaijani...

It seems as if Teymur Khaligov has buried the very idea of humaneness together with his baby. There is a saying, the one who loses a spouse is called a widow, the one who loses parents is called an orphan, and the one who loses a child, well, this is such a tragedy that no one has been able to come with a word to describe its scope.

Dear Mrs. Trump and Mr. Pompeo, I call on you to not stay silent in the face of this tragedy. Do not allow that Teymur Khaligov, clinging to the dead body of his baby, little Khadija who has lost all her family, and other innocent civilians like them lose their hope in humanity because of the war crimes perpetrated by Armenia!

The United States has always supported the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and voted in favor of the UN resolutions passed with regard to this conflict. I believe that the United States, as the co-chair of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Minsk Group and permanent member of the UN Security Council, has a vested interest in the speediest implementation of these resolutions and in seeing the adherence to the principles of the international law by all the states. Therefore, I am asking you to be more effective in restoring the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, ending the occupation, allowing people forcibly removed from their homes to return to their homelands, so finally the people in our region could see peace and prosperity. Every nation and ethnic group deserves no less!

Sincerely,

Shahla Humbatova,

Azerbaijan