Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan on Publication in Euroasianet.org

Baku / 08.08.18 / Turan: Publication in the Euroasianet.org edition of August 6 entitled For Armenians It's Not Occupied Territories, but Homeland has provoked a negative reaction from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

In a letter addressed to the editor of this edition, MFA Press Secretary Hikmet Hajiyev notes that the article by the author Joshua Kuchera reflects only the position of one side.

The article narrates about the situation in the Kalbajar district of Azerbaijan, occupied by Armenians in 1993, where ethnic Armenians are currently located. The author's interlocutors say this is an originally Armenian land and Armenians do not intend to return it to Azerbaijan.

Hajiyev's message to the editor's name noted that Kalbajar was occupied by Armenian forces, which attacked mainly from Armenia, and not from Nagorno-Karabakh. At the same time, aviation and armored vehicles were involved. At the same time, 60 thousand people who lived in the Kalbajar district were subjected to ethnic cleansing.

According to Resolution 822 of the UN Security Council, the occupation forces were urged to immediately and unconditionally release the occupied territories. However, the Armenian side continued the offensive, capturing Agdam, Fizuli, Jabrayil, Gubadly and Zanghilan.

Over the past 25 years, Armenia has plundered property and natural resources in these territories, pursuing a policy of changing ethnic composition and placing ethnic Armenians from various countries in the occupied lands.

The natural wealth of the Kalbajar region is especially violently exploited, and the Albanian Christian monuments are presented as the Armenian ones.

"Azerbaijan will never reconcile with the occupation of its territories... By doing so new Government of Armenia will have a chance to demonstrate that it"s truly and not just in words, but in deeds committed to peace and international obligations of Armenia. Otherwise, all responsibility lies on Armenia.

Azerbaijan, as every other State, retains its inalienable rights under the Charter of the United Nations to exercise its right of self-defense with a view of restoring its territorial integrity and sovereignty within its internationally recognized borders and violated rights of its citizens," the letter says. -02D-