Karabakh Is Azerbaijan! Or Our Answer to Chamberlain

Baku / 10.04.19 / Turan: The speech of President Ilham Aliyev at the Valdai Forum in Sochi on October 3 can be considered unprecedented, and not so much in content but in terms of the status of the event.

Aliyev"s words on this forum and his harsh, ultimatum statements to the Armenian side are unwittingly regarded as the tacit consent of Russia.

On the footage of Aliyev"s speech, it is clearly visible how intensely Vladimir Putin listens to him.

"For 25 years, Nagorno-Karabakh and the other 7 Azerbaijani regions have been under Armenian occupation. Nagorno-Karabakh is an originally Azerbaijani land. In Soviet times, the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region was created. I must say that there is a fairly wide range of opinions in connection with the conflict, often not reflecting realities. So, in order to clarify, I must say that in 1921 the decision of the Caucasus Bureau was, literally, "to leave Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan", and not "to convey it to Azerbaijan", as it is often interpreted by the Armenian side," Aliyev said.

"Prior to the conflict, the Azerbaijani and Armenian populations lived in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region of the Azerbaijan SSR in the proportion of 25% to 75%. As a result of the conflict, the entire Azerbaijani population was expelled from Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as from 7 other regions of Azerbaijan. In other words, there was an ethnic purge and Azerbaijan faced a humanitarian catastrophe: more than 700 thousand IDPs from Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied territories, plus 250 thousand Azerbaijanis expelled from their historical lands in Armenia".

"The UN Security Council adopted 4 resolutions, including resolutions requiring the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian forces from the occupied territories, but they have not been implemented for more than 25 years. We are concerned about the selective nature of the implementation of the resolutions. Sometimes they are implemented within days, and sometimes they are generally not required for certain military operations; in our case, the resolution remains on paper.

The resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict should be within the framework of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, adopted by the whole world, the UN Charter, resolutions of the UN Security Council and the Helsinki Final Act," he stressed.

"I have to say that recently the Prime Minister of Armenia often says that the solution to the conflict should be acceptable for the people of Azerbaijan, the people of Armenia and the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. But the concept of the "people of Nagorno-Karabakh" does not exist. There is a population of Nagorno-Karabakh, which before the conflict consisted of the Azerbaijani and Armenian populations with equal rights," he said.

"As for which solution is acceptable for Azerbaijan, it consists in restoring the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, recognized by the whole world, and returning refugees and internally displaced persons to their ancestral lands, including Nagorno-Karabakh. This is consistent with the UN Security Council resolutions and the Helsinki Final Act," Ilham Aliyev said.

"I would also like to touch on the statement of the Prime Minister of Armenia, which was surprising, and not only in Azerbaijan - the corresponding reaction was also given by the Russian Federation in the framework of the Valdai Forum. So, the statement is almost verbatim: "Karabakh is part of Armenia and this is a full stop!" First, this is, to put it mildly, a lie. Karabakh, both lowland and highland, is recognized by the whole world as an integral part of Azerbaijan. Armenia itself does not recognize this illegal formation. So, Karabakh is Azerbaijan and this is an exclamation mark!" emphasized Ilham Aliyev. -02D-