Single Russian community operates in Azerbaijan STATEMENT

While the Azerbaijani government is making great efforts to engage in peaceful dialogue with its citizens of Armenian origin living in Khankandi city, where Russian peacekeepers are temporarily deployed, a separatist group continues obstructing this process by making unfounded statements and misinforming the international community.

The statements made by the so-called "Russian community" completely contradict the norms of the Constitution of Azerbaijan, Report informs citing the statement of the Republican Council of the Russian Community of Azerbaijan in response to an attempt to use the "pseudo-Russian community" of the Garabagh region in its own interests.

There is not such a territorial unit as "Nagorno-Garabagh" in Azerbaijan. The Garabagh and East Zangazur economic regions of the country were created in accordance with the decree of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. This is only a dream of a separate group of separatists who have settled on the territory of sovereign Azerbaijan, the statement said.

“Residents of the Garabagh economic region of Armenian origin are citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan and must live according to Azerbaijan’s official laws. There is one Russian community in Azerbaijan, which was registered by the Ministry of Justice in 1993 and which today has more than 120,000 people. Our organisation has been recognised by all international organisations and has been actively operating for 30 years. If there are ethnic Russians among the residents of Garabagh who want to join the Russian community of Azerbaijan, then they should apply to us for membership in the organisation. We are ready to respond to their requests and provide all the necessary information,” the statement says.

In his statement, the so-called “Russian community” speaks of Garabagh as the historical land of their ancestors. Garabagh has always been a part of Azerbaijan and will remain so.

“The territorial integrity of our country has been recognised by all countries, including the Russian Federation and even Armenia itself. While stating about the hard fate of the ancestors, the pseudo-community forgets that before Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan, representatives of all ethnic groups lived together peacefully and amicably. Azerbaijanis, including representatives of national minorities, were forcibly expelled from their native lands. National minorities were also forcibly expelled from Armenia itself. Today it is a mono-ethnic state where only the Armenians live, while representatives of dozens of ethnic groups live in Azerbaijan,” the statement says.

The Russian community of Azerbaijan considers such statements as an attempt to destabilise the situation in the region, misinform the international community and slow down the process of integration of the Garabagh Armenians into a multiethnic, multicultural Azerbaijani society.