BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 17
Trend:
Armenia failed to reciprocate the peaceful agenda put forward by Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan’s permanent representative to the UN, Yashar Aliyev, stated at the Security Council open debate on the theme “Maintaining international peace and security: Peace and security through preventative diplomacy: a common objective to all the principal organs of the United Nations”, Trend reports on Nov. 17.
According to the statement, the Azerbaijani delegation has requested the floor for a further statement in connection with the patently false and misleading statement made by the Armenian representative.
“Azerbaijan has seriously suffered from the devastating effects of the war unleashed against it by Armenia in the early 1990s. A significant part of the sovereign territory of my country was seized and remained under occupation for nearly thirty years, notwithstanding Security Council resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884. Serious violations of international humanitarian law have been committed in the course of the occupation, resulting in the killing of tens of thousands of civilians and ethnic cleansing of all occupied areas of more than 700,000 Azerbaijanis. Most captured cities, towns and villages of Azerbaijan were razed to the ground,” the statement says.
“Last fall another act of aggression by Armenia became a logical consequence of the impunity it enjoyed for thirty years. Armenia’s armed attacks involved the use of military force against densely populated Azerbaijani cities far outside the theater of active hostilities, killing and wounding hundreds of civilians and destroying or damaging numerous civilian objects. Azerbaijan launched a counter-offensive operation to liberate its occupied territories, protect its people and allow the internally displaced persons to return to their homes, acting in full accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations. The three-decades-old armed conflict has been resolved,” Aliyev said.
He also said that Azerbaijan expressed its readiness to the normalization of inter-State relations with Armenia, including through the signing of a peace treaty, noting that ensuring lasting peace, development, progress and good neighborliness is the basis of Azerbaijan’s vision for the future.
“However, Armenia has failed to reciprocate the peace agenda put forward by Azerbaijan. Recent large-scale armed provocations by Armenia against Azerbaijan in the border area between the two States, to which Armed forces of Azerbaijan adequately responded, as well as Armenia’s continued territorial claims are the result of irresponsible actions on the State level and of dangerous revanchist ideas overtly propagated in Armenia,” he said.
“Azerbaijan is confident that there is no alternative to the normalization of relations between the two countries based on mutual recognition and respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within their internationally recognized borders and is determined to advance the agenda of peacebuilding, reconciliation, peaceful coexistence and development,” UN Permanent Representative stated.