BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 21. Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the UN Yashar Aliyev delivered a speech at a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, Trend reports on December 21.
During the speech, Aliyev expressed deep regret over Armenia's misuse of the Security Council for a state campaign of manipulation, distortion and falsification, and resolutely rejected all claims of the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the UN against Azerbaijan, saying that they are completely false and groundless.
The permanent representative noted that Karabakh, which is erroneously called ‘Nagorno-Karabakh’ by Armenia and some members of the council, is an internationally recognized sovereign region of Azerbaijan, which was occupied by Armenia for almost 30 years, and this is reaffirmed in the Security Council's resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884.
He pointed out that the legal name of this territory of Azerbaijan at present is the Karabakh economic region or abbreviated Karabakh region.
As for the situation around the Lachin road, Aliyev once again reminded that Azerbaijan resolutely rejects all the claims of Armenia.
The Lachin road is completely located on the territory of Azerbaijan, in the Lachin district. It was occupied by the Armenian armed forces in May 1992. The population of Lachin, which numbered more than 77,000 citizens [before the occupation], was forced to leave their native lands and homes, and the city and surrounding villages were looted and burned by the Armenian troops, the diplomat said.
He also reminded that two years ago, after the 2020 second Karabakh war, in accordance with the sixth point of the trilateral statement [signed between Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders], when the Lachin district was returned to Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani state guaranteed the safety of people, vehicles, and goods moving along the Lachin road.
"Neither the government of Azerbaijan nor the peaceful protesters closed the road to Lachin. The regime for the movement of citizens, cargo and vehicles along the route remains unchanged, and the peacekeepers continue to fulfill their duties related to the protection of the route,” Aliyev noted.
“Videos posted on social media show various types of vehicles, including ambulances and humanitarian aid convoys, passing unhindered. According to the trilateral statement, the Lachin road is intended to be used exclusively for humanitarian purposes,” the permanent representative stressed. “Misusing the road for any other purpose, including illegal military activities such as laying mines or illegal exploitation of Azerbaijan's natural resources is a violation of the terms of the trilateral statement and is unacceptable."
He expressed confidence that Azerbaijan will continue to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity, the rights and security of its citizens in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and international law by all possible means.
Claims about the supposedly humanitarian consequences of the situation are also false. There are no obstacles to the supply of goods or essential health services to the local population in the region. This is nothing but another manifestation of Armenia's manipulation for clearly malicious political purposes, Aliyev said.
The diplomat added that for more than two years, Armenia, in violation of the fourth point of the trilateral statement of November 10, 2020, refused to completely withdraw its armed forces and illegal armed formations from the territory of Azerbaijan, where the Russian peacekeeping contingent is temporarily deployed, and continue their illegal military operations there.
Armenia violates the points of international law and the trilateral statement, making assumptions about the humanitarian significance of the Lachin road, but also actively uses it for military purposes, including the rotation of the personnel of the armed forces and the transfer of weapons to the area, he said.
Violating the first point of the trilateral statement, in which the parties committed themselves to cease all hostilities, Armenia not only refuses to share maps of the hundreds of thousands of mines it has laid on the territory of Azerbaijan but even in the post-conflict period continues to lay new mines, Aliyev pointed out.
So, since August of this year, more than 2,700 mines produced in Armenia in 2021 have been found on the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan, he explained.
On December 14, 2022, as a result of a mine explosion in the Kalbajar district of Azerbaijan, seven people were injured, and one person died. The area where the incident took place was far from the old line of contact, and mines were planted here during the withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the Kalbajar district, the permanent representative noted.
In total, after the signing of the trilateral statement, 276 Azerbaijani citizens became victims of anti-personnel mines, 46 of them, including 35 civilians, died, Aliyev reminded.
The goal is clear - Armenia is trying to use every means to hinder Azerbaijan's efforts to restore and return hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons to their homes, he said.
The diplomat stated that along with the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the historical lands of Azerbaijan, Armenia committed environmental terrorism in the region.
“Armenia, using the Lachin road, is plundering mineral deposits in the territory of Azerbaijan. Irrefutable, documented evidence of their large-scale illegal economic activities, grossly violating international legal norms, in the previously occupied territory of Azerbaijan, has been repeatedly brought to the attention of the international community. Of the 151 mineral deposits, identified on these lands before the occupation, 52 were first worked out in 1993-2020,” Aliyev also said.
“In addition to the illegal exploitation of the natural resources of a sovereign state, mining operations were carried out without sufficient environmental control, wastewater treatment and land reclamation, without observing environmental technical standards," the permanent representative noted.
Aliyev said that Azerbaijan is committed to regional peace, stability and development. The establishment of friendly good neighborly relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan is the key to creating a secure, stable and prosperous South Caucasus through full-fledged regional normalization.
“Azerbaijan's position in this regard is clear, principled and consistent, based on international law and international practice. Immediately after the end of the conflict, Azerbaijan began the process of normalization of interstate relations with Armenia on the basis of mutual recognition and respect for each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders, including through the signing of a peace treaty," he added.