You Quietly Reserve the Right to Engage in Personal Insults: Marukyan to Azerbaijani Official

The Special Envoy of Armenia, Edmond Marukyan, has responded to an article by the Azerbaijani Ambassador-at-Large Pervin Hayam oglu Mirzazade, who addressed Marukyan and his various posts on Twitter.

In his response, Edmond Marukyan expressed confidence that there is a path to long-term and sustainable peace in the region, which involves withdrawing Azerbaijani military personnel from Armenia’s sovereign territory, returning all Armenian prisoners of war and detained individuals, implementing demarcation in accordance with the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration and Agreement, opening communications based on the sovereignty of the parties, and guaranteeing the security, rights, and freedoms of the ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“At the same time, there cannot be a path to peace that involves threats and violence. Throughout your article, the threats directed at the Armenian people are evident, particularly highlighted by the provocative headline. I would like to remind you that just recently, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed the trilateral statement in Sochi, agreeing to refrain from the use of force and threats of force. I am deeply disappointed that today your statements have exceeded the boundaries of the agreements reached by your own government. I also lament that, despite your 33 years of experience at the Foreign Ministry, you tend to draw contradictory conclusions. On one hand, you talk about respect for elders which is a common practice in the Caucasus, while on the other hand, you feel justified in resorting to personal insults. As the classical saying goes, ‘if you want respect, don’t start with insults.’

The lies, which sometimes transcend the limits of imagination, are often one of the tools you use in your reasoning. Under the guise of revenge, the absence of peace, and other fabricated accusations, you conceal your government’s new military aggression justifying it. Under the same guise, you attempt to hide the massacres of tens of thousands of Armenians in Sumgait and Baku, which were accompanied by mass murders, looting, and arson. You also try to forget the ongoing violence against the peaceful population of Nagorno-Karabakh, just as it was during the escalations of conflict in 2016 and 2020. You seek to conceal the killings of innocent people, the detention and execution of prisoners of war, the mocking of deceased servicemen and civilians’ bodies, the destruction of civil infrastructure, and the appropriation and defilement of cultural and historical heritage behind mere words about international law.

It is evident that it is within such an atmosphere that your continuous attempts to distort and completely rewrite history, especially aimed at appropriating Armenian cities and territories, have developed.

I would also like to emphasize the complete dissonance in your article when you make assertions about the concept of ‘sovereignty.’ On one hand, the borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan are clearly recognized and evident to you when it comes to discussing the rights of the people of Artsakh, while on the other hand, there is a need for the demarcation of those borders when it concerns Azerbaijan’s military aggression against Armenia’s sovereign territories. Is it really like that?” stated Marukyan in his response letter.

Edmond Marukyan reiterated that there are borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which, as has been repeatedly confirmed, need to be demarcated and delineated in accordance with the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration and Agreements. He reminded that the joint commission on demarcation is actively working in that direction. Regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, Edmond Marukyan is clear that this matter has never had the nature of a territorial dispute.

“In concluding my remarks, I would like to emphasize once again that the path to peace is complex, yet there is a path. Hatred, violence, lies, and threats are opposed to peace, life, truth, and a bright future. For millennia, the Armenian people have carried the cross of peacekeeping and justice and today they are not ready to abandon their path. I believe in peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan if there is clear political will to implement all agreements and sign a peace treaty. I can confidently state that the Armenian side possesses strong political will to implement all agreements in the near future and sign a peace treaty. Let us see if Azerbaijan has that political will,” concluded the Special Envoy of Armenia.