Azerbaijan is ready to talk with the Armenians of Karabakh, so only Vardanyan will be expelled from there

Baku/18.02.23/Turan: Azerbaijan is ready to start cooperation with the Armenians of Karabakh, but after Ruben Vardanyan is removed from there. This was stated by President Ilham Aliyev on February 18 during the plenary session of the Munich Security Conference.

“We will do this only when a Russian citizen, a criminal oligarch involved in money laundering operations, Vardanyan, is expelled from the territory of Azerbaijan,” Aliyev said.

Today I told this to my Armenian colleague in front of US Secretary of State Blinken,” Aliyev stressed.

“We are ready to speak with the Armenian minority in Karabakh - but with those who were born and live in Karabakh, and not with those who were exported there from Russia. Maybe the word "exported" is not correct enough, rather, he was secretly transferred there, ” he continued.

Aliyev believes that the normalization of Azerbaijan's relations with Armenia and the establishment of relations between Baku and the Armenian population of Karabakh should not be decided together.

“It was agreed with our international partners that the rights and guarantees of the Armenian minority in Karabakh will be discussed. We are ready for it. But with those representatives of the Armenian community who lived, who were born and lived all their lives in Karabakh.

Azerbaijan and Armenia need to demonstrate that the transition from a long state of mutual hatred and hostility must be completed.”

In conclusion, Aliyev called on the international community not to use the term "Nagorno-Karabakh". There is no such administrative unit in Azerbaijan.

“I ask our partners to respect the sovereignty and the Constitution of Azerbaijan. There is the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, where the Armenian population lives,” he stressed. -02B-