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Armenian, Azerbaijani communities can coexist in Nagorno Karabakh: President

Azerbaijan believes that the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities can peacefully live and coexist in Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Sputnik.

Hi added this is already the case in other areas of Azerbaijan, including the capital city Baku, with its thousands-strong Armenian community, as well as in Russia, Georgia, and other countries.

“Armenian and Azerbaijani communities live together in peace there”.

Why can’t we have it here?” he said.

“Our stance has always been based on pragmatism and I think that the ideas that already exist at the negotiating table show this clearly. As for the red lines, we have stated this clearly and the co-chairs of the Minsk Group know this very well — under no circumstances can the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan be compromised, under no circumstances can Azerbaijan agree to recognise the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

“Any war means cruelty, victims, human suffering, loss of loved ones, but the difference is that this is a war of liberation for Azerbaijan and a war of conquest for Armenia. It is no secret — and it is something that international mediators are aware of — that there are no so-called armed forces of Nagorno-Karabakh. Ninety percent of the troops in the group that Armenia calls by this name are Armenian citizens. The Armenian military summons them and sends them to Azerbaijan’s occupied territories: Agdam, Fizuli, Gebrayil, Kalbajar, Qubadli, Lachin, Zangilan.”

Azerbaijani president also some external forces have over years spared no efforts to sow discord and create animosity.

“I often say that [Armenian PM] Pashinyan is a product of Soros, and I believe everyone would agree with that. Soros is not just an individual, he is a concept.”

“I in no way rule out that such instruments were used back then [during the Soviet times] to disintegrate the nation. Just blow it up from the inside, sow discord, play off the people, and disintegrate the country.”

Note Armenia continues to occupy 20% of Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory since the armed invasion that ended in a ceasefire in 1994.

KEY FACTS

  1. Nagorno Karabakh is not a disputed territory. Nagorno Karabakh and adjacent 7 districts under occupation are the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan recognized by all countries, including Australia. Even by Armenia itself.
     Here are the UN General Assembly and UN Security Council resolutions reaffirming the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and calling for the unconditional, complete and immediate withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from these occupied territories of Azerbaijan: 
  1. The UN Security Council original statement on the illegal occupation of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories by Armenia, calling for the immediate withdrawal as announced by Hon. Madeleine K. Albright, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations. 
  2. As you see above, this armed occupation, which claimed over 30 000 lives and still killing hundreds of people each year due to regular shelling of the Azerbaijani settlements from the occupied territories, left Azerbaijan with nearly one million refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP) as reflected in the emergency humanitarian assistance resolutions adopted at the UN General Assembly, including the 48 session, and in formal instruments of international human rights organizations. 
  3. The Armenian armed occupation has led to the instability in the region, ehtnic cleansing of all non-Armenians from the occupied territories, including Khojaly massacre, as affirmed by the international organizations, where the Armenian military massacred 613 civilians, including 106 women and 63 children. 
  4. Despite all this, to find a peaceful, Azerbaijan agreed to the international mediation efforts led by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by France, Russia and the United States, which in the past 28 years has not managed to achieve the withdrawal of the Armenian armed force, nor the return of the refugees and internationally displaced people to their homes in these occupied areas. 
  5. What led to the current flare-up? Why now? For what? As you know, the current flare-up has started from July this year and you can see details, reasons and logic on the BBC HARDtalk with Stephen Sackur. 
  6. Two days ago former US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Mathew Bryza explained the flareup on CNN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yU9JIA9uVg So Armenia’s refusal to continue negotiations on peaceful resolution and shelling civilian settlements from the occupied mountainous regions. This week the shelling killed multiple families entirely with their kids. 
  7. As above, the current situation is the direct result of the occupation of Azerbaijan’s sovereign and internationally recognized territories in the 1990s by Armenia, and the attempts by Armenia to torpedo the prospects of the peaceful resolution of the conflict. 
  8. There is no recognized entity so-called “the Republic of Artsakh” or “the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh”. No country, even Armenia does not recognize such an entity. It is essentially formed by Armenia as irregular/paramilitary armed forces to harass and shell the Azerbaijani civilian settlements under the disguise and refer to it as a separate entity. 
  9.  The current military operations are exclusively carried out within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan. Given above and the fact that Azerbaijan’s own territories are the areas under occupation, where is the logic and reason for Azerbaijan to attack Armenia or Armenian territory? 
  10.   The provocations and claims about the attack on Armenia is calculated to invoke the so-called “attack on one member is an attack on all members” clause of Armenia’s CSTO defence pact with Russia, which excludes Armenian occupied territories of Azerbaijan as it is not considered as an attack on Armenia. So the disguised goal here is to find excuses to try to drag Russia and other CSTO members into the conflict.  
  11.   There is no such thing as Turkey’s active involvement in the current flare up. This is disinformation peddled by Armenian and other certain state/non-state actors at an “unprecedented scale” to achieve Russian involvement as above by misleading the international community to attract the spotlight amid the overload of information and Turkey’s current activities in the Mediterranean Sea. 
  12.  There is no such thing as mercenaries fighting on Azerbaijani side. Azerbaijan has three times the population of Armenia, and therefore a far larger and better equipped army and reservists. Why politically risk bringing any mercenaries? 
  13.  There is no religion, or religious reasons involved in this conflict, especially because Azerbaijan is found to be one of the most irreligious countries in the world, and the religion is essentially highlighted in the disinformation campaign to mislead and stroke the religious sentiment in the international community.  
  14.  Many images and videos published by Armenia are fake and calculated for the international and domestic audience. You can see here the fact-checks by the international media:
     Reuters fact-check: Images of downed helicopter, or conflict analyst Julian Röpcke BILD Germany’s largest newspaper, downed drone fake etc.