BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 27. Azerbaijan has taken note of recent remarks by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Aykhan Hajizada said, Trend reports.
The statement came in response to a question from local media about the comments of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on the situation in the region.
According to Hajizada, every action by Azerbaijan to restore its territorial integrity and sovereignty, including the latest 24-hour counter-terrorism measures, was in line with norms and principles of international law.
"Azerbaijan has always been committed to the protection of civilians and civilian objects within its conducted actions," said Hajizada.
According to Hajizada, despite the fact that during almost 30 years of Armenia’s military occupation Azerbaijanis, facing massacres and mass atrocities were deprived of all their rights, Azerbaijan has always been committed to protecting the rights of all the ethnic minorities on its territory, including Armenians. This has been vocally expressed by Azerbaijan’s leadership on numerous occasions.
"While Azerbaijan both after the second Karabakh war and following the anti-terrorism measures provides assistance to find the whereabouts of missing persons, we do not see the same attention and scrupulosity with regard to almost 4,000 missing Azerbaijanis," said Hajizada.
"We hope the calls of the High Commissioner to conduct transparent investigations to ensure accountability and redress for the victims will be taken seriously by the international community, which ignored calls of Azerbaijan for almost 30 years to punish perpetrators of the genocide in Khojaly, other massacres and crimes against humanity," said Hajizada.
"We also expect Armenia, following this call by UN High Representative, not to deny the rights of Azerbaijanis massively expelled from the current territory of Armenia, and ensure conditions for a dialogue to ensure their rights to return to their homes," he noted.
In order to ensure the provisions of the Trilateral Statement [signed by Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian leaders following the 2020 second Karabakh war], to stop large-scale provocations in the Karabakh economic region, to disarm and withdraw formations of the Armenian armed forces from the territories of Azerbaijan, to neutralize their military infrastructure, to ensure the safety of the peaceful population returning to the territories liberated from occupation, civil servants involved in construction and reconstruction works, and Azerbaijan's military personnel, as well as to restore the constitutional order of the Republic of Azerbaijan, anti-terrorist measures have been conducted in the region.
Taking into account the appeal of the representatives of the Armenian residents of Karabakh, received through the Russian peacekeeping contingent [temporarily stationed in Azerbaijan under the trilateral statement], an agreement was reached on the suspension of anti-terrorist activities of local nature on September 20, 2023, at 13:00 (GMT+4) under the following conditions:
The Armenian armed forces formations and Armenian illegal armed formations located in Azerbaijan's Karabakh region shall lay down their weapons, leave their combat positions and military posts, and fully disarm. The units of the armed forces of Armenia shall leave the territory of Azerbaijan, and the Armenian illegal armed formations shall be disbanded.