Azerbaijan highlights Armenia’s aggression at UN General Assembly
By Sara Rajabova
Deputy Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the UN delivered a speech at the meeting of the UN General Assembly's Third Committee.
Tofig Musayev spoke about eliminating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and intolerance, the Azerbaijani Mission to the UN said in a statement.
Musayev highlighted Armenia's aggressive policies against Azerbaijan, as well as their policy of ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, and other important related issues.
"It is recognized internationally that Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions of Azerbaijan are under Armenia's military occupation" Musayev said.
He said that Armenia turned into a mono-ethnic state in a shameful and disgusting way, by expelling people of other nationalities, particularly Azerbaijanis, from their territory.
Musayev cited current and former political leaders of Armenia as examples, saying that they openly declared the national superiority of the Armenian nation.
Former Armenian President Robert Kocharian's remarks in 2003 about "the ethnic incompatibility of Armenians and Azerbaijanis" evoked the indignation of the international community.
Secretary General of the Council of Europe said in response that Kocharian's comments were tantamount to a declaration of war, and displayed a militant rhetoric of hatred.
President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe said at the time that it was the first time since the Council's establishment that the phrase "ethnic incompatibility" was heard.
Musayev also cited some statements by the current Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in 2010, in which he spoke about the historical and cultural superiority of the Armenian nation over others, and urged Armenian youth to resort to violence and aggression.
The diplomat drew the audience's attention to the direct involvement of the current political and military leadership of Armenia in the brutal massacres which claimed the lives of thousands of Azerbaijani civilians, including children, women and, the elderly during its conflict with Azerbaijan.
The speech of the Azerbaijani representative was followed by comments from Armenian diplomats, who tried to refute the above-mentioned facts on the basis of false arguments.
In response to the Armenian representatives, Musayev offered reasonable arguments, calling the attention of the world community to Armenia's aggressive and racial politics.
According to Musayev, the mechanisms of restoring justice through eliminating consequences of gross human rights violations during the conflict should act efficiently to combat racism and xenophobia.
He said that sustainable peace could not exist where justice was neglected and the sufferings of victims were not recognized.
Musayev said those responsible for war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity should be punished.
Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by U.S., Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.
As a result of Armenia's military aggression, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 were reported missing, almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.
The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.