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Foreign Ministry: Azerbaijan will ensure the rights of Armenian residents living in Karabakh on the basis of the country's Constitution, Azernews reports.

For almost 30 years, the Republic of Azerbaijan has faced Armenia's military aggression, occupation of our territories, massacres of Azerbaijanis, not to mention the elderly, women and children, and almost one million Azerbaijanis have become internally displaced persons and refugees.

Despite recognizing the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan in four resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council in 1993 and demanding the immediate withdrawal of the occupation forces from the territories of Azerbaijan, Armenia did not ignore all these calls, on the contrary, it further strengthened the status quo based on occupation, and in the occupied territories deliberately destroyed the historical and cultural heritage of the Azerbaijani people and pursued a policy of illegal settlement. The Armenian leadership made provocative statements such as "Karabakh is Armenia and that's it" and threatened Azerbaijan with "a new war for the sake of new territories".

In 2020, during the 44-day Patriotic War, the Azerbaijani people under the leadership of the President, victorious Commander-in-Chief Mr. Ilham Aliyev won a historic victory and put an end to the occupation of our lands. Despite 30 years of occupation and deprivation, soon after the Patriotic War, the Azerbaijani side proposed basic principles and a peace treaty to normalize relations between the two countries on the basis of mutual recognition and respect for territorial integrity, sovereignty and border. Despite the fact that the Armenian side did not respond to Azerbaijan's peace initiatives for a long time and delayed the process under various pretexts, the Azerbaijani side resolutely continued its good faith efforts to promote initiatives towards a peace treaty, delimitation of borders and opening of communications.

At the same time, the Azerbaijani authorities took consistent steps towards dialog with the local Armenian residents of the Karabakh region, the construction of a new Lachin road, the use of small hydroelectric power plants in the Lachin region, a number of contacts towards the use and management of the Sarsang reservoir, as well as dialog with the residents of Armenia in the initial periods had positive results. On the other hand, the Armenian side, on the contrary, made an unreasonable proposal such as "ensuring the rights and security of Karabakh Armenians through Baku-Khankendi negotiations within the framework of international mechanism", hindered contacts between Azerbaijan and local Armenian residents, and actually continued its territorial claims to our country under a different name.

Contrary to the provisions of the November 10, 2020 statement on the suspension of all military activities and other international obligations, as a result of Armenia's intensive mining of Azerbaijani territories, importation and burial of mines produced in 2021 in Azerbaijani territories, as a result of the international community deliberately turning a blind eye to Armenia's mine threat Since November 2020, 303 Azerbaijanis, including two journalists, have fallen victim to anti-personnel mines.

Contrary to Armenia's commitments, it has not completely withdrawn its armed forces from our lands, on the contrary, it has rotated them through the Lachin road, supplied them with weapons and ammunition, continued to finance them from Armenia's state budget, and plundered Azerbaijan's natural resources.

In order to control its borders and prevent illegal actions of Armenia, Azerbaijan established the Lachin border crossing point on its sovereign territories. Despite the fact that Azerbaijan ensured the passage of Armenian residents, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Russian peacekeeping contingent through the border crossing, the Armenian side spread false claims about the "tense humanitarian situation" in the region in order to continue its illegal activities on our territories. At the same time, on June 15, our border guards were fired at, an attempt was made to smuggle, and on July 26, trucks were sent to the territory of Azerbaijan without authorization.

Despite the fact that the Azerbaijani side put forward a number of proposals, including the use of the Aghdam-Khankendi road and other alternative roads to meet the needs of the residents of Armenia, and they were supported by the European Union and the ICRC, the Armenian side resisted those proposals and entered the territory by erecting concrete barriers on the alternative roads. The blocking of Armenia's claims regarding the humanitarian situation once again showed that they are political blackmail and manipulation.

Armenia's goal is to attract third parties to the region, expand the geography of tension and derail the peace process.All this, especially the military provocations constantly committed by illegal military formations, including the recently intensified radio-electronic interference with civilian aircraft, is unacceptable and unacceptable.

All these changes that have taken place in recent days

Military provocations, including the recently intensified electronic interference against civilian flights, are intolerable and unacceptable.

Responsibility for all these provocations that have taken place in recent days falls on Armenia and its leadership, which continues its illegal military presence on the territory of Azerbaijan, encourages separatism and hinders reintegration efforts.

"It is unacceptable that a number of countries and international organizations, which have turned a blind eye to the occupation of our territories for thirty years, make biased statements against Azerbaijan. These countries and international organizations have ignored the presence of Armenian armed forces on the territory of Azerbaijan and Armenia's blocking of communications for the past three years. We demand from the countries and international organizations deceived by Armenia's manipulations and making biased statements to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, not to interfere in the internal affairs of our country and to put an end to the policy of double standards. ." .

"Azerbaijan will ensure the rights of Armenia's residents living in its Karabakh region on the basis of the country's Constitution and will resolutely suppress any steps against its sovereignty and territorial integrity," the statement emphasized.

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