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On July 21, 2023, the letter of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, Jeyhun Bayramov, addressed to the UN Secretary-General in connection with the decision of the International Court of Justice dated July 6 to reject the application submitted by Armenia, has been circulated as a document of the Security Council and the UN General Assembly, Azernews reports with reference to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan.

The letter notes that this decision, unanimously adopted in connection with the rejection of Armenia's demand, once again confirms the sovereign right of Azerbaijan to establish a border checkpoint on its territory. It was noted that on April 23, 2023, Azerbaijan established the Lachin border checkpoint in order to prevent the abuse of Armenia for military purposes, the export of our country's natural resources, as well as to prevent the threat of mines. The letter emphasizes that before the provocation committed by Armenia on June 15, 2023, more than 2,000 Armenian residents were provided with safe and transparent passage through this BCP. It was also noted that the adoption by Azerbaijan, in order to ensure security at the BCP, of appropriate measures to investigate the causes of the provocation, as a result of which a serviceman of the State Border Service of Azerbaijan was wounded, was unreasonably regarded by Armenia as a "blockade".

Despite the efforts made by Azerbaijan to regulate the passage through the border crossing, Armenia did not give guarantees that such provocations would not be repeated, therefore, at present, the Lachin road is used only for medical purposes through the International Committee of the Red Cross. It was noted that despite Azerbaijan's proposal to use the Agdam-Khankendi road to provide Armenian residents with sufficient food, the Armenian side refused this proposal.

The letter states that while Armenia is a party that creates restrictions on the use of the Lachin road and also objects to the proposal to use the Aghdam-Khankendi road to meet the needs of Armenian residents, it also continues to mislead the international community with senseless claims about the alleged "blockade of Armenian residents by the Azerbaijani side."

In conclusion, the commitment of Azerbaijan to efforts to establish peace and security in the region, and in particular, the importance of the international community urging Armenia to demonstrate a constructive approach in efforts to achieve sustainable peace, is emphasized.

It should be noted that the International Court of Justice rejected the petition of Armenia dated May 12, 2023, on the alleged “illegality” of the Lachin BCP and the demand for the “withdrawal of all Azerbaijani armed forces from the Lachin road”.

In order to prevent the illegal transfer of manpower, ammunition, mines, as well as other military equipment from Armenia to the Armenian armed formations on the territory of Azerbaijan, carried out contrary to the tripartite statement of November 10, 2020, and to adequately establish a border checkpoint at the entrance by Armenia unilaterally on the Lachin-Khankendi road on the border with Azerbaijan on April 22, at 12:00 on April 23, units of the State Border Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the sovereign territories of our country, on the border with Armenia, at the beginning of the Lachin-Khankendi road, a border checkpoint was installed.

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