BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept.21
Trend:
Azerbaijani Community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan has issued a statement in connection with the International Day of Peace marked every year on September 21, Trend reports referring to the community.
According to the statement, despite the appeal by the UN Secretary-General for a global cease-fire, urging warring parties across the world to lay down their weapons and together battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, Armenia, ignoring this appeal, continues attempts to realize its plans of occupation.
“As a result of Armenian aggression, one-fifth of Azerbaijani territories remain under occupation, making impossible the return of nearly a million expelled Azerbaijanis back to their homes,” the statement reads.
“To consolidate on the occupied territories, the aggressor Armenia has been building illegal settlements and even began moving there Armenian families from Lebanon, misusing recent horrific explosion in Port of Beirut as an opportunity,” the statement further says.
“Anna Hakobyan, the wife of Armenia’s Prime Minister, on the one hand, hypocritically makes calls for peace, and on the other - stages a military training for Armenian women in the occupied Azerbaijani territories,” the statement also reads. “This begs the question, what is the “peace-loving” wife of the “peace-loving” Prime Minister of Armenia doing in the territory of another country in a military uniform aiming a weapon at the people of that country? Unfortunately, the calls of our community for a constructive dialogue to settle the conflict have always been met with ethnic hatred, acrimony, and denialism by the Armenian side.“
“While declaring our belief in the possibility of peaceful co-existence, we call on the international community to urge Armenia to withdraw its occupying Armed Forces and allow us to return to our lands. Realization of this call would allow us to feel the genuine meaning of the International Peace Day which we sadly “celebrate” without peace," the statement concludes.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.