“Referring to the speech of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the Extraordinary Summit of the Heads of States of the Organization of Turkic States in Ankara on March 16, 2023, Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ another false and slanderous statement aims at covering up the occupation policy carried out by Armenia for nearly 30 years, as well as the provocations committed and may commit in the future against Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis during the current post-conflict period, said head of the Press Service Department of Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry Aykhan Hajizada as he commented on the fake and false statement of the Armenian Foreign Ministry against Azerbaijan dated March 16.
“Presenting the facts of purposeful destruction of hundreds of our cities and villages, historical and religious monuments by Armenia during the 30-year occupation; the plundering of our natural resources; the disappearance of nearly 4,000 of our citizens and the discovery of mass graves; Armenia’s continued mine threats; failure to completely remove the Armenian armed forces from the territories of Azerbaijan contrary to territorial integrity and sovereignty, as well as commitments undertaken within the Trilateral Statement; obstructing the opening of the Zangezur corridor; ethnic cleansing against the Azerbaijani population in Armenia and the demand for the safe and dignified return of the Western Azerbaijan Community to their native lands, as a “territorial claim” and “preparation for aggression” against Armenia, is completely groundless.
Similarly, for the Armenian side, which both during the Soviet Armenia period and since the 1990s purposefully changed thousands of Azerbaijani toponyms, destroyed traces of Azerbaijan on the territory of Armenia, demolished historical monuments, thereby carrying out “Armenization” of the historical lands of Azerbaijan, to present Azerbaijan’s use of the term Western Azerbaijan Community as a violation of international law, is hypocrisy.
Armenia, which plundered 9 cities and hundreds of villages during nearly 30-year occupation period, carried out ethnic cleansing against almost 1 million Azerbaijanis, deprived them of the right to return to their homes, has no moral right to talk about the rights of internally displaced persons and refugees after Azerbaijan liberated its native lands and restored these territories.
Azerbaijan is already taking steps towards the reintegration of Armenian residents living in its territory. Azerbaijan conducts a dialogue with Armenian residents and as a goodwill step has proposed to hold the next meeting in Baku. On the contrary, the Armenian side completely rejected the dialogue proposal of the Western Azerbaijan Community. This is an indication that Armenia is not interested in peace and stability in the region and is conducting a duplicitous policy.
Azerbaijani side will take all necessary steps within the framework of international law against any provocation by Armenia,” Hajizada added.