BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 4
Trend:
Armenians who live in Nagorno-Karabakh can be sure that their security will be provided, their financial situation will be much better, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in an interview to the Italian La Repubblica newspaper, Trend reports.
Commenting on “What will be the difficulty for you to manage a possible victory, in the territory which populated by 98% of Armenian people?” the head of state said that this territory was populated with maybe higher now because all Azerbaijanis have been expelled.
“They committed ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis. It’s statistics, soviet statistics, not our statistics. How many people of different nationalities lived in Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous district at the end of the 1970s? Almost 25% of the population there were Azerbaijanis. 40 thousand people. Shusha was 98% percent inhabited by Azerbaijanis. Today, there is no one. In Khankandi, there have been many Azerbaijanis. In Hadrut district, in other districts. Khojaly, in which they committed genocide, was 100% Azerbaijanis. So, they have been all ethnically cleansed, killed, tortured, and expelled. And unfortunately, no one, no one accused Armenia of that. We did not see any sanctions on Armenia. We did not see any serious information supporting us. So, that was done and they created reality on the ground. This is the first thing. Second thing, 200 years ago, there were no Armenians at all there. Because I many times referred to the treaties which Karabakh khan signed with the Russian empire. That Kurakchay treaty of 1805, nothing is said about ethnic Armenians there,” the head of state said.
“Ethnic Armenians were brought to that region from eastern Anatolia and Persia, by Tsarist Russia in order to change the religious and ethnic composition of the region. So, this is a historical part. Now coming to your question. I many times said that all those who live in Nagorno-Karabakh will continue to live there in peace and dignity. Armenians are our citizens. There are thousands of Armenians who live in different parts of Azerbaijan, primarily in Baku, and those Armenians who live in Nagorno-Karabakh can be sure that their security will be provided, their financial situation will be much better. And they will live a much better life than today under this suppression of the junta regime in Nagorno-Karabakh,” the head of state said.