By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijan’s permanent representative to the UN Yashar Aliyev has said Armenia failed to reciprocate the peace agenda put forward by Azerbaijan, Trend reported on November 17.

Aliyev made the remarks at the UN Security Council open debate - “Maintaining international peace and security: Peace and security through preventative diplomacy: a common objective to all the principal organs of the United Nations”.

“Armenia has failed to reciprocate the peace agenda put forward by Azerbaijan. Recent large-scale armed provocations by Armenia against Azerbaijan in the border area between the two states, to which the Azerbaijani armed forces adequately responded, as well as Armenia’s continued territorial claims are the result of irresponsible actions on the state level and of dangerous revanchist ideas overtly propagated in Armenia,” Aliyev stressed.

He noted the terrible impact of the war unleashed by Armenia against Azerbaijan in the early 1990s had severely harmed the country. Despite UN Security Council resolutions 822, 853, 874, and 884, a large part of Azerbaijan's sovereign territory was taken and occupied for about 30 years by Armenia.

Aliyev added that during the occupation, Armenia seriously abused international humanitarian law by murdering thousands of civilians and committing ethnic cleansing against more than 700,000 Azerbaijanis across all the occupied regions. The majority of Azerbaijan's captured civil settlements have been totally destroyed.

“Last fall another act of aggression by Armenia became a logical consequence of the impunity it enjoyed for 30 years. Armenia’s armed attacks involved the use of military force against densely populated Azerbaijani cities far outside the theater of active hostilities, killing and wounding hundreds of civilians and destroying or damaging numerous civilian objects,” Aliyev underlined.

He added that Azerbaijan launched a counter-offensive operation in line with the international law and the UN Charter to liberate its occupied lands, protect its people and enable the internally displaced persons (IDPs) to return to their homes. As a result of this operation, Azerbaijan restored its territorial integrity and resolved the three-decades-old armed conflict with Armenia.

Aliyev stressed that Azerbaijan is willing to normalize mutual ties with Armenia, through the signing of a peace treaty.

He highlighted that Azerbaijan's vision for the future is based on lasting peace, growth, progress, and good neighborliness.

 “Azerbaijan is confident that there is no alternative to the normalization of relations between the two countries based on mutual recognition and respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within their internationally recognized borders and is determined to advance the agenda of peacebuilding, reconciliation, peaceful coexistence and development,” Aliyev added.