Western Azerbaijanis slam European Parliament over prisoner appeal, demand justice

The Western Azerbaijan Community has called on Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to support the return of Western Azerbaijanis to Armenia, criticizing a recent appeal by a group of European lawmakers urging Baku to release all prisoners of Armenian origin.

As Caliber.Az reports, in a statement, the Community said it views the appeal to Azerbaijan “primarily as an endorsement of Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijani territories, as well as the ethnic cleansing and war crimes committed during that period.” The statement added, “Without justice, peace cannot be achieved.”

The Community further asserted that individuals of Armenian origin who have been sentenced to imprisonment are “the bearers and executors of the ‘miatsum’ ideology, which condemned an entire region to boundless tragedies and led to the deportation of us, Western Azerbaijanis, from our ancestral lands.”

According to the Western Azerbaijan Community, rather than “interfering in the internal affairs of a sovereign state and making defamatory accusations,” Members of the European Parliament should “publicly support the return of Western Azerbaijanis to Armenia, who suffered as a result of the bloody actions of the aforementioned individuals.”

By Vafa Guliyeva