Azernews.Az

By Sabina Mammadli

Azerbaijan and the Council of Europe have signed and ratified 65 agreements, including seven more documents, during their 21-year cooperation, Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has said.

He made the remarks at a meeting with visiting Council of Europe Secretary-General Marija Pejčinović Burić.

The parties exchanged views on the current condition and prospects for the development of mutual cooperation between Azerbaijan and the Council of Europe.

During the meeting, the minister emphasized the importance of mutual cooperation within the framework of previous action plans between the Council of Europe and Azerbaijan, also a new Action Plan from 2022 through 2025 based on the needs of Azerbaijan and the recommendations of the Council of Europe.

The secretary-general will take part in the founding meeting of the Council of Europe - Azerbaijan Action Plan from 2022 through 2025 during her visit to Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, Bayramov informed about the current regional post-conflict situation, the fulfillment of tripartite statements signed by Baku, Yerevan and Moscow, and the steps taken by Azerbaijan, including the delimitation process and the reconstruction carried out on Azerbaijani territories liberated from Armenian occupation.

The minister described the implementation of tripartite statements on Karabakh as important for regional peace.

He highlighted the grave consequences of the mine threat on Azerbaijan's liberated territories and mentioned the government's humanitarian de-mining activities.

The Council of Europe secretary-general was informed of Armenia's failure to provide any information about the fate of about 4,000 Azerbaijanis who have been missing since the early 1990s.

The mass graves found on the liberated territories of Azerbaijan testify to the systematic and targeted killing of Azerbaijanis and the concealment of information about this, the minister noted.

It should be mentioned that in the 20th century, Armenians perpetrated systematic crimes and atrocities against Azerbaijanis to break the spirit of the nation and annihilate the Azerbaijani people of Karabakh. The Khojaly genocide is regarded as the culmination of Armenian mass murders.

Some 613 Azerbaijanis, including 63 children, 106 women and 70 elders were brutally murdered on the ground of national identity in Khojaly in 1992.

This heinous act was preceded by a slew of others. Armenians set fire to around 20 buildings in the Baghanis-Ayrim village of Gazakh region, killing eight Azerbaijanis. A family of five, including a 39-day-old newborn, were all burnt alive.

Between June and December 1991, Armenian troops murdered 12 and wounded 15 Azerbaijanis in Khojavand region's Garadaghli and Asgaran region's Meshali villages.

Armenian military detachments bombed buses on the Shusha-Jamilli, Aghdam-Khojavand, and Aghdam-Garadaghli routes in August and September of the same year, killing 17 Azerbaijanis and injuring over 90 others.

In October and November 1991, Armenians burned, destroyed, and plundered over 30 settlements in the mountainous area of Karabakh, including Tugh, Imarat-Garvand, Sirkhavand, Meshali, Jamilli, Umudlu, Garadaghli, Karkijahan, and other significant villages.

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