Armenian Foreign Ministry's Statement in Response to Aliyev's Speech

Azerbaijan is doing everything possible to make peace in the region impossible. This was stated by the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, citing the words of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

“There will be no peace agreement,” Aliyev said during a speech today in the occupied village of Talish in Artsakh.

This statement, the illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor, and the March 5 terrorist act, according to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, indicate Azerbaijan's intention to resolve the issue of the assimilation of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry calls on the international community not to ignore Armenia's warnings about the preparations by official Baku to commit genocide against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“The assessment of the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is unequivocal: Azerbaijan, with its aggressive rhetoric and actions, is preparing to commit genocide against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh and to launch new aggression against Armenia,” the statement said.

It is also noted that both in Talish and in other areas depopulated due to the 44-day war, Azerbaijan is openly implementing resettlement programs, attempting to erase the Armenian traces in the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh under its control. In the early 1990s, regions such as the Shahumyan region, the Getashen subregion, and other places with a predominantly Armenian population faced a similar fate.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry states that Azerbaijan's aforementioned actions directly contradict point 7 of the trilateral statement from November 9, 2020, which states that internally displaced persons and refugees should return to the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent areas under the supervision of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry reminds that on October 6, 2022, in Prague and on October 31 in Sochi, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan made statements recognizing each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty based on the UN Charter and the Declaration of Alma-Ata from 1991, and that the delimitation process between the two countries should occur exclusively on this basis.

Despite this, today the Azerbaijani president again stated that delimitation should take place on the terms proposed by Azerbaijan and has continuously spoken about historical maps.

“Azerbaijan not only occupies the sovereign territories of the Republic of Armenia, which were illegally seized on May 12, November 17, 2021, and in September 2022, but has also introduced the so-called ‘Western Azerbaijan’ discourse and claims the entire territory of the Republic of Armenia as Azerbaijani land,” the statement said.

According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, this signifies an explicit expression of aspirations over the entire sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia.

“Azerbaijan also threatens Armenia if the latter does not accept these aspirations. Azerbaijan continues gross violations of trilateral and quadrilateral statements accepted in various formats and, practically, there is not a single provision of these statements that Azerbaijan has not violated at this moment—from the illegal closure of the Lachin corridor to the continued illegal detention of Armenian prisoners of war and other individuals, ending with groundless discourse obstructing the opening of regional communications,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry's statement said.

Thus, the Azerbaijani president has violated his own commitment made on February 18, 2023, to discuss the rights and guarantees of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In the created situation, the Armenian Foreign Ministry sees the necessity for the international community to activate international mechanisms for the prevention of genocide, send a fact-finding mission to the Lachin corridor and Nagorno-Karabakh, and condemn Azerbaijan's aggressive actions and policies.