Azerbaijan, Karabakh realities in forefront on French radio

The realities of Azerbaijan and its Karabakh region has been in the focus on the French radio station Sud Radio during an interview with Azerbaijani Ambassador to France Leyla Abdullayeva.

Intitially, the ambassador informed the radio journalist that the region called "Nagorno-Karabakh" does not exist, there is only the Karabakh economic region of Azerbaijan, Azertag reports.

"There is no territorial unit called Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, there is only Karabakh, and it is an integral part of Azerbaijan," the diplomat said.

Leyla Abdullayeva noted that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, including Karabakh. According to her, it does not matter what anyone says about it; it is important that, according to international law, Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan. The ambassador recalled that Azerbaijani lands had been under Armenian occupation for 30 years and the Azerbaijanis had faced ethnic cleansing.

The diplomat stressed that Azerbaijan, the first secular republic in the East, is a multicultural, multi–confessional and multinational country, drawing attention to the fact that the Karabakh conflict did not occur on religious grounds.

Asked about the possibility of the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities’ co-existence, Leyla Abdullayeva said that representatives of all religions and many peoples live in harmony in Azerbaijan. During the war, as well as after the war, 30,000 Armenians lived and continue to live in Azerbaijan. Like them, Karabakh Armenians can also live in peace. There are radical Armenian groups that support separatism, but there are also Armenians who advocate peace.

"The Armenians of Karabakh are citizens of Azerbaijan, they are a national minority of multinational Azerbaijan. All minorities in Azerbaijan have equal rights and privileges, their cultural, linguistic and other rights are ensured, and their security is also ensured," the ambassador said.

Expressing her opinion on the position of the French Republican deputies, the diplomat stressed that what they said is not true and is regrettable.

"After the end of the war in 2020, Azerbaijan seeks to establish peace in the region. The Azerbaijani president and the Armenian prime minister continue negotiations on a peace agreement," the diplomat added, informing about the meetings in Brussels and Chisinau and informing about the progress of the negotiation process.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have long been at odds over the latter’s Karabakh region. Following the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, Armenia launched a military campaign against Azerbaijan that lasted until a ceasefire deal was reached in 1994. As a result, Armenia occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories. Over 30,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis were killed, and one million were expelled from these lands in a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign carried out by Armenia.

On September 27, 2020, the decades-old conflict between the two countries spiralled after Armenia’s forces deployed in occupied Azerbaijani lands shelled military positions and civilian settlements of Azerbaijan. During counter-attack operations, Azerbaijani forces liberated over 300 settlements, including the cities of Jabrayil, Fuzuli, Zangilan, Gubadli, and Shusha. The war ended in a statement signed on November 10, 2020, under which Armenia returned the occupied Aghdam, Kalbajar, and Lachin districts to Azerbaijan.

Shortly after the war, the Azerbaijani authorities voiced readiness and determination to launch negotiations with Armenia that would ultimately bring the long-awaited peace to the region.

However, the process suffered major setbacks due to Armenia’s demands, including so-called “rights and security” of nearly 25,000 Armenians living in the Karabakh region, in addition to avoiding fulfilling its obligations under the Trilateral statement, such as the withdrawal of its armed formations from the Azerbaijani territories.

President Aliyev has repeatedly said that the demands of the Armenian side would not be considered since Armenians living in the Karabakh region are the citizens of Azerbaijan and issues regarding their rights is Azerbaijan’s internal matter.