Artak Beglaryan: The people and authorities of Artsakh will never  accept any de jure or de facto status within Azerbaijan

ArmInfo.Artsakh has been Armenian for thousands of years, and will remain so forever thanks to our national will and efforts. State Minister of the Artsakh Republic  Artak Beglaryan, who previously held the post of Ombudsman of  Artsakh, wrote about this on his Facebook page, commenting on the  latest statements by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on the status  of Artsakh and the number of Armenians living in the Republic.

In particular, Beglaryan stressed that the Azerbaijani leader is  trying to mislead the public and the international community once  again. "The Aliyevs have come and gone for centuries, and the  Armenian Artsakh has always stood firm," he stressed.

In his statement, Beglaryan highlighted several notes. In particular,  he stressed that Ilham Aliyev was once again right when he said that  there is no such territory in Azerbaijan as Nagorno-Karabakh. "Yes,  Nagorno- Karabakh has always been outside Azerbaijan, and it will  continue to be so," the State Minister added.  Beglaryan called  Aliyev's statements on the status of Artsakh self-deception and a  lie, noting in this regard that, despite the losses and difficulties,  the Republic of Artsakh is full-fledged, as in the pre-war period. In  particular, he stressed that Artsakh has established state  institutions and attributes, as well as an unbreakable will to  develop and strengthen them. "The people and authorities of Artsakh  will never accept any de jure or de facto status within Azerbaijan.  By consistent struggle we will achieve international recognition of  our independence", he said.

According to the former Ombudsman, making false statements that 25  thousand people live in Artsakh, while in fact the population is  about 115-120 thousand, Ilham Aliyev recognizes and accepts that the  fate and future of Artsakh depend from his people, and also tries to  distort reality with a simple trick.  "He again distorts history,  claiming that NKAO was an artificial union, but presenting it as a  step against Azerbaijan, and ignoring the fact that no one really  asked the Armenian people when Artsakh was occupied by Azerbaijan,"  Beglaryan said. He noted that the truth is that the conflict began in  the pre-Soviet period, and unjust decisions were made in the first  years of the creation of the USSR, against the will of the population  of Artsakh, which was overwhelmingly Armenian.

Therefore, according to Beglaryan, it is inappropriate to consider  the conflict since 1988, but it is worth taking into account the  legal and historical facts. In this context, he stressed that Artsakh  in 1921 was not only annexed to Azerbaijan, but also its borders were  artificially and rather significantly reduced, the demographic  picture of the region was forcibly changed, and a white genocide was  committed.  "In fact, returning to the issue of the formation of the  NKAO, Aliyev accepts the need to take into account the foundations of  the conflict settlement, including the borders and demographic  picture. And if the Armenians came to Artsakh at the beginning of the  19th century, then with whom did the invaders Panakh and Ibrahim Khan  fight in the middle of the 18th century? Who defeated the Ottoman  troops in Artsakh at the beginning of the 18th century? in what  language are there numerous inscriptions in the medieval monasteries  of Gandzasar and Dadivank? Or maybe ancient and medieval foreign  historians were bribed, testifying about the Armenian Artsakh, etc.,  etc.?>, Beglaryan asks.