Illegal elections in occupied Karabakh strongly condemned by int’l community

By Akbar Mammadov

The illegal ‘elections’ organized by Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan on March 31 were strongly condemned and rejected by the international community, Spokesperson of Azerbaijani Foreign Afairs Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva said in a briefing on April 2.

She emphasized that international and regional organizations, including the European Union, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, NATO, GUAM, the Turkish Council, as well as the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, have issued statements condemning the so-called "elections" and saying they have no legal basis.

“Each of these organizations and states has reaffirmed their principled position and told Armenia that ‘the forced acquisition of territories by force cannot be recognized as legitimate; the occupation of territories cannot be used to impose their international recognition or change their legal status,” Abdullayeva said.

“While reading the statement of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia, the aggressor country on this issue, one inevitably remembers the fairy tale ‘Alisa behind the mirror’ in which the protagonist falls into the world of his imagination and fantasy. In reality, the truth is completely different and well known to the international community,” the spokesperson said.

“What did Armenia achieve by organizing a fiction in Nagorno-Karabakh under the name of ‘election’, allocating considerable financial resources for this chimera from its budget? Speaking of “democracy” under conditions of military occupation and ongoing ethnic cleansing is nothing more than insinuation and self-deception. By the way, the very fact of a separate statement by the Armenian Foreign Ministry on the so-called "elections" show in Nagorno-Karabakh once again proves the absence of the need for the participation of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh in the negotiations,” the spokesperson emphasized.

Abdullayeva further said that Armenia’s destructive position is not surprising and must be understood the context of the still ongoing military occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and the adjacent regions of Azerbaijan, as well as the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis from their homes as a result of ethnic cleansing, violation of the fundamental human rights of the local Azerbaijani population of the occupied territories.

She further reminded the “elections” run counter to Azerbaijan’s Constitution and the international law and have no legal force in this regard.

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Akbar Mammadov  is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

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