No:159/23, The response by Aykhan Hajizada, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to the question of the local media concerning the groundless allegations made by Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on March 23, 2023
Question: On March 23, 2023, Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan made further baseless allegations against Azerbaijan during the government meeting. How would you comment them?
Answer: We condemn and completely reject groundless claims made by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan against Azerbaijan, who stubbornly repeated the statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia on March 18 despite our detailed response.
The aggressive rhetoric of the Armenian leadership, which threatens the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan and ignores Armenia's international obligations, demonstrates the disinterest of Armenia in peace in the region.
We recommend Prime Minister Pashinyan to learn lessons from the history and guide Armenia, which has occupied the territories of Azerbaijan for 30 years and carried out ethnic cleansing against hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis, in the right direction, not to obstruct the peace agenda Azerbaijan has been promoting since 2020, as well as to refrain aggressive acts such as attacking the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and interfering in its internal affairs.
It is unacceptable to label the return by Azerbaijan of former IDPs, the victims of Armenia's ethnic cleansing policy to their native lands as an alleged violation of the Trilateral Statement. Furthermore, Armenia has no moral right to present itself as a "protector of rights" of the Armenian residents of Azerbaijan.
It is absurd that, Armenia, which destroyed property belonging to Azerbaijanis both in its own territory and in the cities and villages it occupied for 30 years, along with illegally moving Armenians to these territories, opposes Azerbaijan's settlement in its sovereign territories and historical lands.This statement also directly contradicts the Prague and Sochi agreements, which Armenia repeatedly refers to.
Armenia which forcibly evicted Azerbaijanis from their historical lands in the current territory of Armenia, that cannot digest the peaceful existence of hundreds of ethnic peoples in Azerbaijan and spreads lies about this, claiming that it is not a monoethnic state is another example of Armenian fraud.
If Armenia really intends to abandon its territorial claims and revanchist policy against Azerbaijan, it should abandon this aggressive rhetoric. If Armenia is interested in peace in the region, it should stop the attempts to interfere in and hinder the contacts for reintegration of the central authorities of Azerbaijan with the Armenian residents.