Armenian authorities’ recent statements indicative of Yerevan’s next provocation against Baku
By Akbar Mammadov
Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region has said that the Armenian authorities’ recent provocative statements and actions indicate that the military-political leadership of this country is preparing for another act of aggression against Azerbaijan.
In a statement published on September 16, the community said that Armenia continues to make provocative statements against Azerbaijan via the separatist regime set up in Azerbaijan’s occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region.
“Armenia continues to make provocative statements against our country, both on itself behalf and on behalf of the so-called regime created in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.”
The community noted that recently, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan put forward seven groundless and provocative principles for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The same principles have been put forward by the head of the illegal regime in the Nagorno-Karbakh, the community said. It emphasized that these seven “principles”, which originates from impunity and arrogance, are completely unacceptable.
It is stated in the statement that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev recently demanded one principle against Pashinyan’s seven principles – the withdrawal of Armenian troops from Azerbaijan’s occupied territories.
Furthermore, the community said that Armenia seeks to change the format of negotiations by distorting facts.
“The parties to the conflict are Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the interested parties are the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. The negotiation format cannot be changed."
It is said in the statement that Yerevan has been rejecting the community’s proposal for negotiations.
“Armenia not only rejects our offer of dialogue with the Armenian community of Nagorno-Karabakh but even denies the mere existence of our community. This is a vivid example of the Azerbaijanophobia policy pursued at the state level in Armenia,” the community added.
“As a community, we declare that Armenia will never be able to deceive the world community. The truth is that Armenia occupied 20 per cent of the internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan, carried out ethnic cleansing, expelled up to 1 million Azerbaijanis from their native lands, and created a criminal regime in our occupied lands to conceal their aggression."
The community stated that Azerbaijan’s biggest concession in the conflict resolution is its participation in peace negotiations for many years. “The settlement of the conflict is possible only with the complete withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and with the return of all internally displaced persons to their homeland,” the statement reads.
It should be noted that Armenia has stepped up its military provocation recently, staging sabotage both on the border and on the line of contact.
On July 12, Armenian forces shelled Azerbaijan's positions in Tovuz, Azerbaijan's strategically-important district. The attack killed 12 Azerbaijani servicemen, including an army general, as well as a 76-year-old civilian. Armenian forces retreated after suffering losses in Azerbaijan's retaliation.
Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Group’s efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
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Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97
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