Thread by @SaschaDueerkop

Incredible work by @JonahFisherBBC here, who has documented the first complete destruction of a church in #Artsakh by #Azerbaijan following the war, despite minders and efforts to cover it up.

Shocking to see this - and yet completely unsurprising, sadly.

https://twitter.com/JonahFisherBBC/status/1374979603765288960

The interview with @HikmetHajiyev is just awful. It's clear to see that this church hasn't been destroyed by accident, but was completely razed with heavy machinery. Ethnic cleansing carried out as a state policy. Simply deeply disgusting.

Yet, I'm also not impressed by @Aivazian_Ara and his statements. Everyone who has been to #Agdam and other cities in the "buffer zone" has seen that they've been systematically destroyed, too, and it's time to admit it, imho.

There is one major difference between the two razings, in my opinion:
In the 90s, several militias fought a half-organised war and yes, both sides committed crimes during these campaigns.
Now, a professional and well-structured army is ethnically cleansing lands on orders.

This doesn't justify either crime, but it's an important difference, imho.

Nothing, however, justifies committing ethnic cleansing today. Nothing that happened 30 years ago and nothing that might have been stated. @HikmetHajiyev's defense is classical whataboutism.

In fact, if @HikmetHajiyev stresses that razing #Agdam was an unforgivable crime 30 years ago, he is also admitting that what his army is doing following the orders of his president is an unforgivable crime. He is admitting his guilt in ethnic cleansing live on camera.