Today.Az » Politics » MFA: There is no concept “people of Nagorno-Karabakh”
08 October 2019 [16:41] - Today.Az


By Azernews


By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Armenia’s attempt to present the people of Nagorno-Karabakh as a party in the negotiations process is deceptive since in today’s realities, the statement “people of Nagorno-Karabakh” does not include Azerbaijanis who have been expelled from this region.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva has said that there is no concept as “people of Nagorno-Karabakh”, rather there the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Any new and unfounded ‘discoveries’ do not promote the process, especially when it comes to deliberate distortion of facts and existing realities. Before the conflict, the Azerbaijani and Armenian population lived together in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region. Using the concept of some separate ‘people’ is merely a self-deception for there is no such concept,” Abdullayeva said.

She reminded that the basic principles and elements of the negotiations that have been going on for many years are well known and clearly stated in the statements of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, including the statement of March 9, 2019.

Spokesperons Leyla Abdullayeva made the remarks in response to the Armenian Foreign Ministry’s criticism of President Ilham Aliyev’s speech made in Valdai International Discussion Club on October 3.

Abdullayeva emphasized that during his speech, the president refuted allegations circulated by the Armenian authorities with regards to Karabakh’s history.

“In response to the false insinuations often voiced by the Armenian side about the alleged transfer of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan in the Soviet period, with reference to the text of the decision of the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of July 5, 1921, it was stated that there was no wording ‘transfer of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan,’ which the Armenian side deceitfully declares, and a decision was made to keep Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan,” Abdullayeva said.

Abdullayeva noted that recently Armenian political leadership has been making attempts to declare that it has discovered a new formula for resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, in accordance with which it resorts to use the expression "people of Nagorno-Karabakh", while such a concept does not exist.

The spokesperson stated that the Armenia has created “a revolutionary dictatorial regime akin to the Bolshevik dictatorship” in this country.

The spokesperson reminded that Pashinyan’s statement (in August) about annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, Defence Minister David Tonoyan’s statement (in March) that Armenia will get more Azerbaijani territories in case war breaks out, as well as other belligerent statements run counter to the Armenian prime minister’s statement about “preparing peoples to peace”.

Furthermore, Abdullayeva mentioned the atrocities committed against civilians during the Nagorno-Karabakh war by Monte Melkonyan, one of the leaders of Armenian ASALA organization that has been recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and other Western countries, who was a commander in the war and was named the Armenian hero posthumously.

The genocide of the civilian population in Khojaly in 1992, the killing of 9-year-old Fariz Badalov by a sniper in 2011, the killing of 14-year-old Aigun Shakhmaliyeva in 2012 using a mine-bomb, targeted fire by the Armenian Armed Forces of civilians and objects during 2016 April battles that caused the death of six civilians, the killing of a 2-year-old girl Zahra and her grandmother in July 2017, the killing of an excavator driver near the state border a few days ago and other similar atrocities are clear examples of the ongoing Armenia at the state level, occupation and terrorist policy, the spokesperson stated.

The deliberate shelling and killing of civilians in Azerbaijan is a policy pursued by Armenia at the state level. “At the heart of this policy are ethnic hatred, racial discrimination and xenophobia,” Abdullayeva said.

She also mentioned that Azerbaijani monuments are being destroyed, plundered and appropriated by Armenians in the occupied territories.

Abdullayeva reiterated the government’s position that the conflict should be resolved within the framework of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan on the basis of relevant UN resolutions, the Helsinki Final Act, the norms and principles of international law. The entire international community recognizes and supports the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, she stressed.

"Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijan and an exclamation mark,” the Foreign Ministry official said, adding that In compliance with UN Security Council resolutions, Armenia must withdraw its troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, and Azerbaijani IDPs should return to their homeland.



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