Baku firmly rejects Armenia's anti-Azerbaijan claims as biased, groundless

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has strongly rejected as biased and groundless a statement by the Armenian Foreign Ministry commenting on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's views and appeals he made in the liberated Lachin district on May 28, 2023.

"The deliberate distortion by the Armenian Foreign Ministry of the Azerbaijani president's calls on the need to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty, the inadmissibility of interference in Azerbaijan's internal affairs and the decisive prevention of steps that serve to promote separatism in the region demonstrate that the Armenian Foreign Ministry has not learnt lessons from history," Caliber.Az quotes the ministry as saying on May 29.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry stressed that the statement by Armenia, "which for 30 years, has occupied Azerbaijani territories, carried out ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis, and destroyed towns and villages, is a manifestation of its inability to bear the reconstruction work carried out by Azerbaijan after the liberation of these territories from occupation, creating all conditions for the return of the population expelled from these territories in the short term”.

“It seems that Armenia, at the same time, seeks to distract the international community and cover up its actions, such as the planting of over 2,700 anti-personnel mines to prevent civilians from returning to these territories and the planting of booby traps in houses during the withdrawal of troops from Lachin, whose occupation was terminated in accordance with the provisions of the Trilateral Statement of 10 November 2020," the ministry said.

The ministry ridiculed the fact that Armenia, which has committed an act of aggression against Azerbaijan in violation of the UN Charter, norms and principles of international law, and has not stopped the occupation despite 4 UN Security Council resolutions, claims that Azerbaijan threatens to use force.

"It is totally groundless for a country which has expelled the entire Azerbaijani population not only from the occupied Azerbaijani territories but also from Armenia to claim that Azerbaijan intends to carry out 'ethnic cleansing' of Armenians living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan intends to take all necessary steps to reintegrate local Armenian residents.

Preventing encroachment on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is a sovereign right of Azerbaijan, and this is consistent with the norms and principles of international law. Armenia's actions contradicting this and interfering in Azerbaijan's efforts at dialogue with Armenian residents constitute interference in the internal affairs of our country and contradict Armenia's pathetic claims of "support for territorial integrity and sovereignty.

The intention to prepare for peace and stability in the region is not measured by false appeals and promises but by real steps. Everyone knows that it was Azerbaijan who first proposed the basic principles for peace, who first put forward the text of a peace treaty, who promoted efforts to open communications in the region, who facilitated the establishment of a delimitation commission and worked towards that end, and who promoted confidence-building measures, such as the return of soldiers who strayed at the border.

Thus, it would be good if the Armenian side would respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our country, including the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, not in word but in deed, rather than obstructing peace efforts and making false statements," the ministry responded.