Baku blames Yerevan for "hypocrisy"

The spokesperson to the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan, Aykhan Hajizada, has blamed the Armenian side for hypocrisy.

Hajizada's remarks came in response to a statement by the Armenian Foreign Ministry with regard to World Refugee Day on June 20.

"Hypocrisy of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia has no borders! A country responsible for the ethnic cleansing of more than 1 million Azerbaijanis and multiple massacres against civilians disseminates false narratives distorting historical facts," Hajizada wrote on Twitter, per Caliber.Az.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry called on the international community on June 20 to focus on the alleged "ethnic cleansing" by Azerbaijan against Armenians.

The Armenia-Azerbaijan have long been locked in a conflict that emerged with anti-Azerbaijan sentiments in Armenia and later grew into armed intervention in Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories. A four-year bloody war between the two neighbouring countries ended with a ceasefire in 1994 and saw Armenia occupying 20 per cent of Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory. Over 30,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and one million were expelled from those lands in a brutal ethnic cleansing policy conducted by Armenia.

The Khojaly genocide is considered one of the bloodiest massacres committed by Armenia against ethnic Azerbaijanis. Late into the night on February 25, Armenia’s forces, backed by the Infantry Guard Regiment No. 366 from a then-collapsed Soviet army, assaulted the town of Khojaly, located in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the attack, the Armenian armed forces killed 613 ethnic Azerbaijanis, including 106 women, 63 children, and 70 elderly people; and took another 1,275 as hostages. Another 150 Azerbaijani nationals went missing, and their fates remain unknown to this day. Those suffering major injuries or having been maimed totalled 487, including 76 children.

Thomas de Waal, a Senior Fellow at Carnegie Europe, included an interview with Armenia’s former President Serzh Sargsyan, who commanded Armenian separatist forces during the Karabakh war in the 1990s, in his book titled “Black Garden.” De Waal noted that while answering a question about the Khojaly events Sargsyan did not deny the killing of Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian forces.

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.