Armenia's response to Azerbaijan's peace initiatives: Another blatant lie in UN

The Permanent Representative of Armenia to the United Nations, Mher Margaryan, has demonstrated the consistency of official Yerevan in making provocative statements. He made his contribution to this collection at the UN Security Council's open debate on "Contributions to conflict prevention - empowerment of all actors, including women and youth".

As the title of the debate suggests, the focus was on gender equality and youth participation in processes taking place in different countries around the world. But then Margaryan took what seemed to him to be an appropriate route for provocative speeches, starting by saying that women and youth representatives suffer the most in conflict situations. You cannot argue with him. Every war means the death of people, including old people, women and children.

Azerbaijan suffered very heavy losses during the First Karabakh War. According to different estimates, 15-25 thousand of our compatriots died. In addition, it was officially stated in 2021 that the Azerbaijani side has 3,890 people on the list of missing persons, including 3,171 servicemen and 719 civilians. They have not yet been returned by the Armenian side. In addition, between 1992 and 2006, 451 people died or were killed in Armenian captivity.

Yet Armenia has never faced any punishment for this crime. Mr Margaryan, of course, chose to remain silent on the matter. Nor did he mention the reasons for this bloody conflict, although everything is more than obvious. I would like to remind you that on February 20, 1988, the extraordinary session of the people's deputies of the NKAO, bypassing the legislation, applied to the Supreme Soviets of the Armenian SSR, the Azerbaijan SSR and the USSR with a request to consider and positively resolve the issue of the transfer of the NKAO from Azerbaijan to Armenia. As the British journalist Tom de Waal notes in his book "The Black Garden", from that day on "the slow slide towards armed conflict began". But Armenia's permanent representative to the UN said nothing about it either. He preferred to make false and provocative statements. For example, he repeated the thesis of a "blockade of the Nagorno-Karabakh population", which never happened. The road from Armenia to Khankendi was open. In particular, a huge arsenal of weapons, which can still be found here and there, was delivered through this road.

In addition, many former members of the Karabakh junta fled from Khankendi to Armenia along this road, and now walk around Yerevan giving interviews. Margaryan started an old line about mythical "ethnic cleansing". Even though the whole world has seen how Armenians illegally residing in the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, calmly leaving these lands, even giving interviews to Azerbaijani TV channels.

Many of the Armenians speaking at the time were surprisingly fluent in Azerbaijani. They left in cars loaded with furniture and toilets and were given water, sweets and food by Azerbaijani policemen. Azerbaijanis remember what real ethnic cleansing is, they remember being driven from their homes by Armenian fighters who separated fathers and mothers from their children and shot innocent people. None of them were given time to pack. But Margaryan has chosen not to remember this either.

He did not mention that according to the Geneva Conventions, illegal settlement is a crime. In other words, the very fact of settling Armenians, including those from different countries of the world, in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is already a crime. But the international community has not imposed any sanctions on Armenia, has not even publicly condemned Yerevan. Margaryan has also remained silent.

He did not and cannot give an honest answer to a simple question - were Armenians expelled from their homes in Armenia? The correct answer is that they were not driven out, this is not a reality. However, there are many facts about the expulsion of Azerbaijanis from their homes on the territory of Azerbaijan. And Margaryan is aware of all these facts, but he tells lies and provocative statements. Because he has been ordered to do so by Yerevan. They have already tried to use the UN Security Council as an arena to condemn our country. Such attempts have been made twice. Once it was Armenia that made such a provocation, and once it was France. And both attempts ended in the fiasco of Yerevan and Paris. But, as we can see, they have not calmed down and they keep trying to spread nonsense and lies about Azerbaijan.

It is particularly striking that this is taking place during a debate in the UN Security Council. After all, Armenia is a country that for more than a quarter of a century has ignored the four resolutions of the UN Security Council and General Assembly demanding the withdrawal of all illegal Armenian armed formations from the occupied territories of our country. It is also important to note that all these provocative speeches were made in response to the next peaceful statements from Baku. In his conversation with Wolfgang Ischinger, President of the Munich Security Conference Foundation, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stressed that our country was the initiator of the peace treaty with Armenia and the basic principles on which the peace treaty is based were proposed by the Azerbaijani side. In addition, the XI Global Baku Forum on the theme "Fixing a Fractured World" was held in our capital, where Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made it clear that our country is ready to continue the peace process. "We believe that peace is possible. This is what we want. We have restored historical justice and international law. And now it is time to put an end to hostilities in the region," said the head of state.

The reaction of the Armenian side to these peace initiatives of Azerbaijan was demonstrated by Mher Margaryan. And it was yet another proof of official Yerevan's unwillingness and inability to abandon the policy of provocations and take real steps towards peace with Azerbaijan.