MP: Azerbaijan strongly condemns terrorism in all its manifestations

By Trend

Victims of terrorist acts must be afforded adequate protection and support, and their dignity and human rights must be fully upheld, Deputy Chairman of Azerbaijan's Parliamentary Committee on Family, Women and Children, MP Sahiba Gafarova said at the autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg, France, Trend reports.

The Azerbaijani MP noted that terrorism is not a new phenomenon in Europe.

"I am from the country that has suffered very much from terrorism. But unfortunately in the report in the list of the European countries which have experienced terror attacks there is Azerbaijan. However Azerbaijan became an object of terrorism from our neighbor - Armenia, ever since the beginning of 20th century. The terror acts reached their peak in 1905-1907 and in 1918-1920. Armenian terrorists acted with special cruelty. They spared neither elderly nor women and children, leaving behind burned and destroyed villages," she noted.

"Since the end of the 1980s, Azerbaijan has again become the main target of the Armenian terrorism. Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan has resulted in the occupation of 20 percent of the territory of Azerbaijan and full-scale war and mass displacement when thousands of people – including women and children – were killed and one million people forced to flee their native lands and homes," she said.

"There are several resolutions of different international organizations such as UN, European Parliament, PACE, as well as others. They condemned the occupation of the territory of Azerbaijan and ethnic cleansing and demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all Armenian forces from the occupied areas of Azerbaijan," Gafarova said.

"However, Armenia ignored these resolutions, and the UN Security Council did nothing to enforce compliance. The populist speech of Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan in Armenia, in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, that "Karabakh is the territory of Armenia" and his last speech in UN clearly shows that Armenia continues to ignore all resolutions, continues to violate the ceasefire regime with attacks on Azerbaijani soldiers and civilians at the front lines. I am sure that such speeches can only increase the number of victims. And I'd like to stress that Karabakh will never be the territory of Armenia. It was, is and will be the territory of Azerbaijan," she added.

Gafarova noted that the durable solution for the problems of victims of Armenian terrorism in Azerbaijan can only be achieved through the withdrawal of Armenian forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and return of refugees and IDPs to their homes.

"We, therefore, strongly condemn terrorism in all its manifestations, and support efforts of the international community in the fight against it. It is particularly important to uproot the menace of terrorism in order to achieve regional and international peace and security," she added.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.