Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Australian MP has urged Armenia to withdraw from occupied Azerbaijani territories.

MP Luke Simpkins, the chairman of the Australia-Azerbaijan Parliamentary Friendship Group, said in the Australian parliament that Azerbaijani lands occupied by Armenia must be liberated, Trend reported.

“Armenia illegally seized the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan in 1992-1993. This includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions of Azerbaijan. As a result of the attack and seizure of that territory by Armenia, over one million Azerbaijanis were forced out of their homes and became internally displaced persons in other parts of Azerbaijan. Therefore, over one million Azerbaijanis have been kept from their land, their property and the graves of their ancestors for over 20 years,” Simpkins said.

He also called taking hostage of Azerbaijanis Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev by the Armenian side as being unacceptable.

Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev were captured by Armenian special forces in Shaplar village in July 2014 while they were visiting the graves of their relatives. In the same incident, special forces killed Azerbaijani citizen Hasan Hasanov.

Following an expedited “judicial process" last December, Asgarov was sentenced to life imprisonment and Guliyev to 22 years in jail.

“The exact whereabouts of Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev and their health conditions are unknown. There are many inconsistencies from the different accounts of Armenian sources. I would ask the foreign minister to raise this matter with Armenia,” Simpkins said.

The Australian MP said Azerbaijan’s occupied territories must be freed, in the meantime noting that Armenia must release Asgarov and Guliyev.

Simpkins also stressed that he intends to continue raising issues concerning Azerbaijan in the Australian parliament.

During his visit to Azerbaijan in early November, he said the Australian delegation intends to raise the issue of Azerbaijan’s refugee and internally displaced peoples before the country’s foreign ministry.

During the Azerbaijan visit, the Australian delegation visited Ganja and met with the IDPs from the Kalbajar region of Azerbaijan to obtain detailed information about them.

The bloody war, which flared up in the late 1980s due to Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor, left 700,000 civilians of Nagorno-Karabakh and the regions adjoining it, as well as the regions bordering with Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh without homes.

Moreover, 250,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from Armenia and became refugees due to Armenia's ethnic cleansing policy during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijanis who had displaced from their homes as result of the brutal war were forced to live in refugee camps in very difficult conditions.

Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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