The previous day, the representative of Azerbaijan’s MFA made a comment containing territorial and historical claims against Armenia. How do you assess such claims? The RA MFA’s Department of Information and Public Diplomacy responded to a question from the Armenpress news agency.
“By putting forward false territorial and historical claims against Armenia, the Azerbaijani side is trying, on the one hand, to remove the Karabakh conflict from the international agenda, and on the other hand, to create new threats to regional security and stability.
Trying to justify such a fabricated agenda, the Azerbaijani side does not shy away from attributing blatant falsifications to the November 9 trilateral statement. If we follow the logic of the Azerbaijani interpretation of the return of displaced persons under the aforementioned document, then Armenian refugees should return to Nakhichevan, Ganja, Baku, Sumgait and other Armenian-depopulated territories of present-day Azerbaijan.
As for the historical claims against Armenia voiced by the spokesperson of Azerbaijan’s MFA, it is difficult for us to comprehend Azerbaijan’s criteria for the designation “historical.” We are compelled to remind once again that history can never be the strong suit of a country whose both geographic and political name has a century-long history, and the designation “Azerbaijani” is even newer than that.
The efforts of Azerbaijan’s leadership to sow and maintain persistent enmity between the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples are a constant threat to regional peace and security. Before accusing Armenia of revanchism (vengefulness), Azerbaijan must explain to the international community the meaning of Baku’s “Military Trophy Park,” which is nothing but a shameful “monument” to revanchism and misanthropy.
Armenia will continue to consistently advocate from the positions of the realization of the right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh, the de-occupation (unblocking) of the territories of Artsakh subjected to ethnic (national) cleansing, and the return of the Armenian population to those territories in accordance with the November 9 trilateral statement. Only the resumption of the peaceful settlement process of the Karabakh conflict under the co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group can create preconditions for lasting peace in the region.”
