(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 21 . Permanent
Representative of Azerbaijan to the UN Yashar Aliyev delivered a
speech at a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York,
trend reports on
December 21.
During the speech, Aliyev expressed deep regret over Armenia's
misuse of the Security Council for a state campaign of
manipulation, distortion and falsification, and resolutely rejected
all claims of the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the UN against
Azerbaijan, saying that they are completely false and
groundless.
The permanent representative noted that Karabakh, which is
erroneously called 'Nagorno-Karabakh' by Armenia and some members
of the council, is an internationally recognized sovereign region
of Azerbaijan, which was occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years,
and this is reaffirmed in the Security Council's resolutions 822,
853, 874 and 884.
He pointed out that the legal name of this territory of
Azerbaijan at present is the Karabakh economic region or
abbreviated Karabakh region.
As for the situation around the Lachin road, Aliyev once again
reminded that Azerbaijan resolutely rejects all the claims of
Armenia.
The Lachin road is completely located on the territory of
Azerbaijan, in the Lachin district. It was occupied by the Armenian
armed forces in May 1992. The population of Lachin, which numbered
more than 77,000 citizens [before the occupation], was forced to
leave their native lands and homes, and the city and surrounding
villages were looted and burned by the Armenian troops, the
diplomat said.
He also reminded that two years ago, after the 2020 second
Karabakh war, in accordance with the sixth point of the trilateral
statement [signed between Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian
leaders], when the Lachin district was returned to Azerbaijan, the
Azerbaijani state guaranteed the safety of people, vehicles, and
goods moving along the Lachin road.
'Neither the government of Azerbaijan nor the peaceful
protesters closed the road to Lachin. The regime for the movement
of citizens, cargo and vehicles along the route remains unchanged,
and the peacekeepers continue to fulfill their duties related to
the protection of the route,” Aliyev noted.
“Videos posted on social media show various types of vehicles,
including ambulances and humanitarian aid convoys, passing
unhindered. According to the trilateral statement, the Lachin road
is intended to be used exclusively for humanitarian purposes,” the
permanent representative stressed.“Misusing the road for any other
purpose, including illegal military activities such as laying mines
or illegal exploitation of Azerbaijan's natural resources is a
violation of the terms of the trilateral statement and is
unacceptable.'
He expressed confidence that Azerbaijan will continue to protect
its sovereignty and territorial integrity, the rights and security
of its citizens in accordance with the Charter of the United
Nations and international law by all possible means.
Claims about the supposedly humanitarian consequences of the
situation are also false. There are no obstacles to the supply of
goods or essential health services to the local population in the
region. This is nothing but another manifestation of Armenia's
manipulation for clearly malicious political purposes, Aliyev
said.
The diplomat added that for more than two years, Armenia, in
violation of the fourth point of the trilateral statement of
November 10, 2020, refused to completely withdraw its armed forces
and illegal armed formations from the territory of Azerbaijan,
where the Russian peacekeeping contingent is temporarily deployed,
and continue their illegal military operations there.
Armenia violates the points of international law and the
trilateral statement, making assumptions about the humanitarian
significance of the Lachin road, but also actively uses it for
military purposes, including the rotation of the personnel of the
armed forces and the transfer of weapons to the area, he said.
Violating the first point of the trilateral statement, in which
the parties committed themselves to cease all hostilities, Armenia
not only refuses to share maps of the hundreds of thousands of
mines it has laid on the territory of Azerbaijan but even in the
post-conflict period continues to lay new mines, Aliyev pointed
out.
So, since August of this year, more than 2,700 mines produced in
Armenia in 2021 have been found on the sovereign territory of
Azerbaijan, he explained.
On December 14, 2022, as a result of a mine explosion in the
Kalbajar district of Azerbaijan, seven people were injured, and one
person died. The area where the incident took place was far from
the old line of contact, and mines were planted here during the
withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the Kalbajar district,
the permanent representative noted.
In total, after the signing of the trilateral statement, 276
Azerbaijani citizens became victims of anti-personnel mines, 46 of
them, including 35 civilians, died, Aliyev reminded.
The goal is clear - Armenia is trying to use every means to
hinder Azerbaijan's efforts to restore and return hundreds of
thousands of internally displaced persons to their homes, he
said.
The diplomat stated that along with the illegal exploitation of
natural resources in the historical lands of Azerbaijan, Armenia
committed environmental terrorism in the region.
“Armenia, using the Lachin road, is plundering mineral deposits
in the territory of Azerbaijan. Irrefutable, documented evidence of
their large-scale illegal economic activities, grossly violating
international legal norms, in the previously occupied territory of
Azerbaijan, has been repeatedly brought to the attention of the
international community. Of the 151 mineral deposits, identified on
these lands before the occupation, 52 were first worked out in
1993-2020,” Aliyev also said.
“In addition to the illegal exploitation of the natural
resources of a sovereign state, mining operations were carried out
without sufficient environmental control, wastewater treatment and
land reclamation, without observing environmental technical
standards,' the permanent representative noted.
Aliyev said that Azerbaijan is committed to regional peace,
stability and development. The establishment of friendly good
neighborly relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan is the key to
creating a secure, stable and prosperous South Caucasus through
full-fledged regional normalization.
“Azerbaijan's position in this regard is clear, principled and
consistent, based on international law and international practice.
Immediately after the end of the conflict, Azerbaijan began the
process of normalization of interstate relations with Armenia on
the basis of mutual recognition and respect for each other's
sovereignty and territorial integrity within internationally
recognized borders, including through the signing of a peace
treaty,' he added.