Azerbaijan is Not Ready for Peace, Says Yerevan MP

The Republic of Armenia has repeatedly stated, adhering to its international obligations, that the issue of Artsakh does not have a military solution. This was written by Vilen Gabrielyan, a member of the Civil Contract party faction on his Facebook page. He added, “Since the 44-day war in Artsakh, it has been announced that Armenia is ready to open an era of peace in the region. The government program clearly states that Armenia is ready to normalize relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan without preconditions, which cannot be said about Azerbaijan.

Since November 9, 2020, the President of Azerbaijan has made public anti-Armenian statements more than once and continues to pursue an anti-Armenian policy to this day. A vivid example of this is the complete address of the President of Azerbaijan on September 27 of this year, where in every paragraph he refers to Armenians as fascists and enemies, claiming that the Republic of Armenia is a historical Azerbaijani territory, and that all these entirely distorted historical facts should be taught to Azerbaijani children in schools.

Aliyev’s similar public statements indicate that Azerbaijan is not ready for peace. Evidence of this includes the promotion of hatred towards Armenians in Azerbaijan, the desecration and destruction of Armenian cultural monuments, the torture and killing of Armenian POWs. Every subsequent thesis about peace is immediately connected with the “corridor” that is directly related to the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, as well as with preconditions that are rejected by both the co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Group and other countries such as Iran and India.

A vivid example of Azerbaijan's imitation of seeking peace is seen in the repeated naked statements and actions aimed at underestimating the humanitarian mission and role of the peacekeepers deployed in Artsakh by the co-chairing states of the OSCE Minsk Group, as well as by the Russian Federation, and giving them a formal character.

In the context of Azerbaijan's ethnic hatred, intolerance, and genocidal aspirations towards Armenians, violations of the ceasefire regime are regularly carried out, along with blatant assaults threatening the lives and health of the civilian population (in particular, the explicit murders of civilians on November 8 of this year), and all of this must receive an appropriate international, political, and legal assessment.

I declare this not only as a member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia’s Defense and Security Committee but also as someone born in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, who has been displaced from his birthplace due to the anti-Armenian policies pursued by the Azerbaijani leadership. This is vivid evidence that the leadership of the Absheron Peninsula has been pursuing this policy for more than 30 years.