MFA: Armenia has no moral right to speak about rights of refugees, IPDs UPDATE

A spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Aykhan Hajizade has said that another statement of the Armenian Foreign Ministry full of lies and slander regarding the speech of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the Extraordinary Summit of the Organisation of Turkic States in Ankara on March 16, aims at further covering the occupation policy that Armenia has been pursuing for almost 30 years, as well as those already committed and possible Armenian provocations against Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis.

“Armenia, for 30 years of occupation, purposefully destroyed hundreds of Azerbaijani cities and villages, historical and religious monuments, plundered Azerbaijani natural resources. As a result of its actions, about 4,000 Azerbaijani citizens went missing. Armenian continues planting mines on the Azerbaijani territory and refuses to completely withdraw the Armenian armed forces from Azerbaijani territories, violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan and its obligations within the tripartite statement, preventing the opening of the Zangezur corridor. Having committed ethnic cleansing against the Azerbaijani population, Armenia is completely unreasonably trying to present the demand of the Western Azerbaijan Community for a safe and dignified return of people to their native lands as “territorial claims” and “preparation for aggression”. Moreover, the Armenian side, which purposefully changed thousands of Azerbaijani toponyms on the territory of Armenia, erased the traces of Azerbaijan for years, destroyed our historical monuments, thereby misappropriating the historical Azerbaijani lands, is now hypocritically trying to pass off the use of the expression Western Azerbaijan as a violation of international law. Armenia, which for almost 30 years of occupation destroyed nine cities and hundreds of villages, carried out ethnic cleansing against about one million Azerbaijanis, and prevents them from returning to their houses, has no moral right to talk about the rights of refugees and internally displaced people,” the spokesman for the Azerbaijani foreign ministry said, Caliber.Az reports.

“Azerbaijan has begun to take steps to reintegrate Armenian residents living in its territory. Azerbaijan is in dialogue with Armenian residents and has already offered to hold the next meeting in Baku. The Armenian side, on the contrary, categorically rejects the proposal of the Western Azerbaijan Community for dialogue. This testifies to the fact that Armenia is not interested in peace and stability in the region and continues its hypocritical policy. The Azerbaijani side will take all necessary steps within the international law against Armenia’s provocation,” Hajizade added.

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Full of lies and slander, yet another statement of the Ministry of Foreign Ministry of Armenia, made regarding the speech of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at the Extraordinary Summit of the Organization of Turkic States in Ankara on March 16, aims to further cover the occupation policy that Armenia has been pursuing for almost 30 years, as well as those already committed and possible Armenian provocations against Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis.

The statement came from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Aykhan Spokesperson Hajizada on March 17 in response to the comments of Armenian counterparts on President Aliyev's remarks in Ankara, Caliber.Az reports.