BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov.9
Trend:
Karabakh Armenians have always lived and will live peacefully with Azerbaijanis within Azerbaijan, representatives of Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh region’s Armenian Community said in their statement, Trend reports referring to Russian Km.ru media outlet.
"Everyone needs to understand that Azerbaijan is changing the configuration of relations in the region from enmity to cooperation," the representatives said, also calling on scholars and historians of the international community to join the study of the history of Nagorno Karabakh’s indigenous peoples.
“We appeal to the world community of scholars, historians, researchers, and ask to conduct an objective study of the origin of historical monuments in Nagorno Karabakh, as well as its indigenous population. The opinion is wrong that Armenians (of Hayk origin) have lived in the region for long centuries,” noted the community. “Representatives of different ethnic groups lived on the territory of Nagorno Karabakh. They were connected with Armenia only in terms of the church. The fact is that the Caucasian Albanian church was abolished at the beginning of the 19th century, having been replaced with the Armenian one, because the Armenians were moved from Persia and Turkey to Karabakh in numbers that were many times higher than the number of local Armenians.”
“As a result of such resettlement, the prevalence of the Armenian population over the Azerbaijani one was created, to which the separatists always refer," the community pointed out. "For many years, in our opinion, such peoples as the Christian Turks, Kipchaks, Udins, Iranian-speaking peoples and other ethnic groups, who lived in Nagorno Karabakh, were mispresented as Armenians (of Hayk origin). Moreover, some of the historical monuments, churches, monasteries of Caucasian Albania (Arran) were presented as Armenian.”
At the same time, the Armenian community representatives noted that they are close both spiritually and related to the Karabakh Azerbaijanis, stressing that in Armenia the Karabakh Armenians were called ‘shortvats’ (shape-shifters).
Armenian Armed Forces launched a large-scale military attack on positions of the Azerbaijani army on the front line, using large-caliber weapons, mortars, and artillery on Sept. 27.
Azerbaijan responded with a counter-offensive along the entire front. As a result of retaliation, Azerbaijani troops liberated a number of territories previously occupied by Armenia, as well as take important, strategic heights under control.
The fighting continued into October 2020, in the early days of which Armenia has launched missile attacks on Azerbaijani cities of Ganja, Mingachevir, Khizi as well as Absheron district.
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, the 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.