BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 7. The Economist has published the response of Azerbaijani Ambassador to the UK Elin Suleymanov to a pro-Armenian article in this newspaper, Trend reports.
“The article called “The Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan is on the verge of famine” (September 4) rightly notes that humanitarian issues are being politicized by Armenian separatists in Azerbaijani Karabakh. A clear confirmation of this is their refusal, for purely ethnic reasons, of supplies carried out by Azerbaijan and awaiting access, as well as blocking of the Aghdam road. At the same time, they complain about the "blockade" and "humanitarian catastrophe". You are absolutely right that in the Armenian political discourse, the opponents of peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan use humanitarian problems in order to exclude the possibility of reaching an agreement," the ambassador writes.
He notes that the article does not mention that the territory on which the separatists stage their political performances is under the temporary responsibility of Russian peacekeepers. Moreover, even after the end of the 2020 war and despite statements by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia continued to use the Lachin road to transport soldiers and mines into Azerbaijani territories that had previously been occupied and ethnically cleansed for three decades.
Suleymanov writes that Azerbaijan's proposal to integrate local Armenians in Karabakh into its diverse society, giving them equal rights and protection, like for other citizens, and sign a peace treaty in the near future, remains the only option for lasting peace and prosperity in the region.
“The alternative in the form of instability, the constant presence of peacekeepers and the absence of any development benefits only supporters of war and separatist warlords to the detriment of their own people,” the Azerbaijani ambassador to the UK says in a response article.