Western Azerbaijan Community condemns US congressmen, senators for slanderous letter

The Western Azerbaijani Community has made a statement condemning the US congressmen and senators for a slanderous letter against Azerbaijan.

“A group of US congressmen and senators have issued another slanderous letter against Azerbaijan. The most absurd aspect of the joint letter accusing Azerbaijan of "aggression against Karabakh" is that the congressmen and senators called 8 Azerbaijani villages occupied by Armenia ‘Armenian villages’,” says a statement by the Community, Trend reports.

The statement notes that the Community regards this as an obvious example of illiteracy of the authors of this letter, as well as Azerbaijanophobia and Islamophobia.

"The agreement reached yesterday through direct contacts between Azerbaijan and Armenia shows that the South Caucasus does not need the illiterate letters of US congressmen and senators, and they should refrain from policy of creating unnecessary geopolitical competition in the region," the statement by the Community notes.

Following negotiations between the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, guided by principles of humanism and as a goodwill gesture between the two nations, an agreement has been reached to release 32 individuals of Armenian origin by Azerbaijan and two Azerbaijani servicemen by Armenia.

The 32 individuals destined for return to Armenia, 26 of whom were arrested during anti-terror measures in the Hadrut direction in December 2020, with the remaining six detained at the border on different occasions, have already served the majority of their sentences.

Crucially, the released individuals do not and cannot include leaders of the so-called regime who committed war crimes and outrage on humanity against the Azerbaijani people, such as Arayik Harutyunyan, Bako Sahakyan, Arkadi Ghukasyan, Ruben Vardanyan, as well as Vagif Khachaturyan and Alyosha Khosrovyan.

In its turn, driven by the values of humanism and as a gesture of goodwill, the Republic of Armenia releases 2 Azerbaijani military servicemen.

As a sign of good gesture, the Republic of Armenia supports the bid of the Republic of Azerbaijan to host the 29th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP29) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, by withdrawing its own candidacy. The Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan do hope that the other countries within the Eastern European Group will also support Azerbaijan’s bid to host. As a sign of good gesture, the Republic of Azerbaijan supports the Armenian candidature for Eastern European Group COP Bureau membership.

The Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan will continue their discussions regarding the implementation of more confidence building measures, effective in the near future and call on the international community to support their efforts that will contribute to building mutual trust between two countries and will positively impact the entire South Caucasus region.”