(MENAFN- AzerNews) Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizade has
made a commentary on the anti-Azerbaijani statement of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of Armenia dated March 18. The document
reads:
We strongly condemn and reject the statement of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Armenia dated March 18, which demonstrates the
continuation of groundless territorial claims against the Republic
of Azerbaijan, aims at undermining the territorial integrity and
sovereignty of Azerbaijan, and grossly interferes in its internal
affairs.
We once again urge Armenia, which is unable to digest the start
of returning of former IDPs, victims of Armenia's ethnic cleansing
policy, to their homelands, to accept the reality that came to be
as a result of the 44-Day Patriotic War in the region, and to
refrain from aggressive steps and revanchist policies.
To label the return of Azerbaijani IDPs to their homes as a
“violation” of the Trilateral Statement and“illegal settlement” is
yet another clear manifestation of hypocrisy by Armenia, which, in
violation of international law and four UN Security Council
resolutions, kept the territories of Azerbaijan under occupation
for 30 years, forcibly expelled about 1 million Azerbaijanis from
their homelands, and brutally destroyed all Azerbaijani historical
and religious monuments in the region. This statement demonstrates
Armenia's features of racial discrimination and hatred.
At the same time, this statement demonstrates that Armenia, a
monoethnic state that has pursued a large-scale policy of ethnic
cleansing against Azerbaijanis for decades, has not refrained from
the abhorrent goal pursued by ilthe legal settlement of Armenians
not only from its own territory, but also from the countries of the
Middle East in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, as well as
“Armeniazation” of Azerbaijani territories, and the goal of
hindering the return of Azerbaijanis in every possible way.
It should be noted that the reference to the settlements of the
Republic of Azerbaijan by fictitious names is another manifestation
of Armenia's territorial claims against Azerbaijan. It seems that
Armenia, which has just become familiar with international law and
the principle of respect for territorial integrity, should continue
its enlightenment in this area.
The Prague and Sochi Statements demand Armenia to end its
territorial claims against Azerbaijan, and to recognize and respect
the latter's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Nevertheless,
the recently escalating rhetoric of the political leadership of
Armenia, including the aforementioned statement by the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Armenia, aggressive statements, especially the
actions aimed directly at the territorial integrity and sovereignty
of Azerbaijan, demonstrate that Armenia yet another time does not
intend to utilize the historical opportunity for peace.
The claim by Armenia that Azerbaijan, who initiated the signing
of a peace treaty after the war of 2020, presented the 5 basic
principles for building relations and the text of the peace
agreement, is not interested in the peace agreement, is another
obvious example of deception. It is well known that Armenia, which
did not respond to Azerbaijan's proposal to sign a peace agreement
for more than a year, and then conditioned the signing of a peace
agreement to the delimitation process that usually takes a long
time, and to other destructive proposals, obstructs the peace
treaty under various pretexts, exaggerating certain elements and
creating confusion about its essence.
With such statements, Armenia is trying to cover up its
artificial delaying of the peace treaty negotiation process, as
well as its recent blow to the process by refusing to attend the
next round of negotiations in December 2022.
As it is known, even before the 2020 war, from the first day
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan came to power, the chain of
provocations committed by Armenia, both verbally and in action,
undermined the negotiation process on the settlement of the former
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict and led to a serious increase in
tension in the region. It is also well known that under the
leadership of N.Pashinyan, Armenia adopted a military doctrine and
a national security strategy that envisages the concept of“a new
war for new territories” and defines the country's strategic goal
in the negotiation process as preserving the results of the war and
that after the July 2020 clashes, following the impunity syndrome,
Armenia put forward 7 unjustified conditions against
Azerbaijan.
Armenia, not forgetting its pattern of putting forward
conditions, now interferes with the process of reintegration of the
Armenian residents of Azerbaijan. In order to prevent Azerbaijan's
determined activity in the direction of conducting a dialogue with
the Armenian residents, the Armenian side does provocations that
induce the representatives of the Armenian residents to oppose the
proposal of holding the next dialogue in Baku, while putting
forward 3 conditions for the process. It seems that the Armenian
side has not adapted to Azerbaijan's successful dialogue with the
Armenian residents in the last two years on the construction of the
new Lachin road, the Sarsang reservoir, and in a number of other
directions. The fact that the Armenian side does not hide its
hostile attitude towards the term“reintegration” and describes
this concept as a challenge to dialogue and peace, indicates its
intention to continue its groundless territorial claims under new
forms and new names. If the Armenian side is interested in peace in
the region, it should stop the attempts to interfere with and
hinder resolute reintegration contacts of the central authorities
of Azerbaijan with the Armenian residents.
The attempts of the Armenian Foreign Ministry to convince the
international community that this country is not a monoethnic state
can be considered Armenia's first steps towards understanding that
mono-ethnicity is actually an anomaly in the multi-ethnic Caucasus
region. Regarding the claims of Armenia against the success of
Azerbaijan as a multinational state, let us note that it is well
known that many ethnic peoples live in conditions of unity and
stability in the territory of Azerbaijan, and contribute to the
success of the state, and hold a number of high positions,
including the membership at the Milli Majlis (Parliament). The
Armenian side should understand that the citizenship of the
Republic of Azerbaijan is a commitment along with the right.
Necessary conditions to live in Azerbaijan will be created for
Armenian residents, who accept this.
Armenia should give up its intention to use the ethnic
minorities in the territory of Azerbaijan in its unsuccessful and
insidious policy, and instead of trampling on the rights of
hundreds of thousands of Western Azerbaijan Community forcibly
evicted from their native lands in the current territory of
Armenia, and preventing dialogue with them at all costs, should
respond to calls of this community for dialogue with Armenia for
the purpose of peaceful, dignified and safe return. Thus, the
practical indicator that Armenia has given up the concept of
“ethnic incompatibility” and the“title of a mono-ethnic state
based on ethnic cleansing,” and has chosen peaceful coexistence and
multiculturalism can only be by creating conditions for the members
of the Western Azerbaijan Community to return to their historical
lands.
Armenia, which ignored the calls and decisions of international
organizations to end the occupation during the 30-year-long
occupation period, should also stop its efforts to use the
international organizations in its revanchist policy in violation
of territorial integrity, and immediately stop attempts to
interfere in the cooperation and relations of the Republic of
Azerbaijan with international organizations.
Despite all illegal intervention attempts, blackmail and threats
by Armenia, Azerbaijan continues its cooperation with the
international community, including UN specialized organizations, in
direction of carrying out large-scale restoration and
reconstruction work after ending the occupation of its territories,
and in order to ensure the safe and dignified return of internally
displaced persons. We remind Armenia that the delegation of the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees witnessed the large-scale
destruction caused by Armenia in the territories of Azerbaijan
liberated from occupation in October 2021, including in the
settlement of Sugovushan. Unlike Armenia's vandalism, Azerbaijan,
with its restoration and reconstruction work, proves that the true
owners of the region have returned, and further aggression attempts
in these areas will be prevented. The activity of international
organizations in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan will
continue within the framework of the national legislation of
Azerbaijan, and interference in the internal affairs of Azerbaijan
will never be allowed.
Regarding the false and misleading claims of the Armenian MFA
regarding the implementation of the Trilateral Statement, we would
like to remind that Armenia, which refuses to fulfill the 4th, 6th
and 9th paragraphs of the statement in particular and in general
never complies with international agreements, has illegally
intruded its military servicemen into the territory of Azerbaijan
and committed military provocation against Azerbaijan only two
weeks after the signing of the Trilateral Statement. Despite the
attempts by Armenia to present these detainees as prisoners of war,
these people were not recognized as prisoners of war, and the
International Court of Justice as well as the European Court of
Human Rights rejected this claim and the demand for their release.
Furthermore, Armenian side, contrary to the Trilateral Statement,
has set to fire a number of houses, destroyed forests, planted
landmines and booby traps in the areas it was withdrawing from,
despite having been given an additional timeline by Azerbaijan for
the withdrawal of the armed forces of Armenia from Aghdam, Kalbajar
and Lachin.
Contrary to the Trilateral Statement, Armenia has not yet fully
withdrawn its armed forces from the sovereign territories of
Azerbaijan, and despite its assurances while signing the Trilateral
Statement, it continues to occupy a number of settlements and
territories, including 7 villages of Gazakh district and 1 village
of Sadarak district. The fact that Armenia proposes to organize the
delimitation process on the basis of Soviet maps and does not
accept these villages as settlements of Azerbaijan is a violation
and an indication of Armenia's false intentions.
Besides, Armenia carries out the deployment of landmines and
other terror activities in the territories of Azerbaijan by
transferring newly produced landmines to the territories of
Azerbaijan. The initial denial by Armenia of the existence of
landmine maps for 8 months, and it presenting unreliable landmine
maps later as a result of international pressure are well known. It
is also known that more than 55% of the mine explosions in the
territory of Azerbaijan happened in areas outside the maps handed
over by Armenia. As a result of these provocations of Armenia,
after the 2020 Patriotic War, 286 people became victims of
landmines, of which 49 people, including 3 journalists, were
killed. At the same time, it is clear that Armenia, with all its
efforts, has grossly violated the Trilateral Statement and
prevented the opening of a communication line that would ensure
unhindered movement from the western regions of Azerbaijan to
Nakhchivan.
It is crystal clear that Armenia, which has resorted to
so-called 'ethnic cleansing' and 'genocide' tales to divert
attention from these peace-threatening steps, is looking for
further provocations to convince the international community of its
false claims. The cruelty with which Armenia committed mass
killings against Azerbaijanis, killed 613 civilians in one night in
Khojaly and committed acts of genocide are also well known. The
facts that about 4,000 Azerbaijanis have gone missing as a result
of the policy of aggression against Azerbaijan, that Armenia has
refused to provide information on the missing persons, and that a
number of mass graves have been discovered in the territories of
Azerbaijan liberated from the occupation are impossible to deny.
Despite such an aggressive policy of Armenia, Azerbaijan released
many detainees, conducted searches after the 2020 war, and handed
over more than 1,700 Armenian bodies to Armenia, as well as nearly
200 bodies as a result of Armenian provocation in September 2022.
It seems that Armenia has forgotten these measures taken by
Azerbaijan for humanitarian purposes in goodwill and on a
unilateral basis.
Once again, we call on the political leadership of Armenia to
act responsibly, to refrain from provocations, statements, and
false rhetoric that undermine the opportunities for peace created
in the region after the 44-day war.
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