Azerbaijan preparing genocide of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians and new  aggression against Armenia

ArmInfo.Armenia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued the following statement in response to the Azerbaijani president's bellicose statements in Talish.  "'There will be no peace treaty'," this is a quote from the speech of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, made on March 18, 2023.

"President Aliyev made this statement in Talish village of  Nagorno-Karabakh, which was depopulated as a result of the 44-day  war.

"In Talish as well as in other regions depopulated by the 44-day war  Azerbaijan is openly implementing resettlement programs in an attempt  to eliminate the Armenian trace from the territories of Nagorno-  Karabakh that have passed under its control. At the beginning of the  1990s, Shahumyan region, Getashen sub-region and other settlements  with a large Armenian population also suffered a similar fate.

"The above-mentioned actions of Azerbaijan are in direct  contradiction to the point 7 of the trilateral statement of November  9, 2020, according to which internally displaced persons and refugees  shall return to the Nagorno-Karabakh territory and adjacent regions  under the control of the United Nations High Commissioner for  Refugees.

"With the policy of illegal resettlement and the practice of  terrorizing the Armenians of Nagorno- Karabakh, official Baku is  doing everything to make the implementation of the above-mentioned  provision of the trilateral statement impossible.

"Azerbaijan is doing everything to make peace in the region  impossible. On October 6, 2022, in Prague and on October 31, 2022, in  Sochi, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan adopted statements  according to which, based on the UN Charter and the 1991 Alma-Ata  Declaration, Armenia and Azerbaijan recognize each other's  territorial integrity and sovereignty, and the delimitation process  between the two countries should take place exclusively on this  basis. Despite this, on March 18, the president of Azerbaijan again  announced that the border delimitation should take place under the  conditions set by Azerbaijan and has been continuously talking about  some historical maps for a long time.

"Azerbaijan not only keeps under occupation the sovereign territories  of the Republic of Armenia which it illegally occupied on May 12 and  November 17, 2021 and in September 2022, but also introduced the  so-called "Western Azerbaijan" discourse and declares practically the  entire territory of the Republic of Armenia as Azerbaijani land.

"This means the expression of open claims towards practically the  entire sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia. Azerbaijan  also threatens Armenia if the latter does not accept those claims.

"Azerbaijan continues the gross violations of the trilateral and  quadrilateral statements adopted in various formats, and in practice  there is not a single clause in those statements that Azerbaijan has  not violated:  illegal closure of the Lachin corridor, keeping  Armenian prisoners of war and other captives in illegal detention  until now, obstructing the opening of regional communications with  groundless discourse about "corridor".

"Moreover, the President of Azerbaijan has violated the commitment he  made on February 18, 2023 to discuss with Armenians of  Nagorno-Karabakh the issue of their rights and guarantees.

"Just a few weeks after the mentioned commitment Azerbaijan announced  that it was going to discuss the issue of "integration of the  Armenians of Karabakh", and the statements made in Talish, the  illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor, the terrorist attack on  March 5 prove that Azerbaijan intends to resolve the issue of at  least assimilation of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh, and  Armenia's alarms about official Baku's preparations to subject the  Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians to genocide should not be ignored by the  international community.

"In the discourse of the last period Azerbaijan found a new  accusation against the Republic of Armenia, accusing it of being a  mono-ethnic country and trying to create the impression that, unlike  Armenia, Azerbaijan is a multi-ethnic country. According to the  Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, four national minorities  have a mandate in the highest legislative body of the country, and  there is no such regulation in Azerbaijan which considers itself  multi-ethnic.

"The assessment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of  Armenia is clear: with its aggressive discourse and actions  Azerbaijan makes preparations for subjecting the Armenians of  Nagorno-Karabakh to genocide and for a new aggression against  Armenia.

"In the current situation, it is necessary to launch the  international mechanisms for the prevention of genocides, send an  international fact-finding mission to the Lachin corridor and  Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as to directly condemn Azerbaijan's  aggressive actions and policies. At the same time, the Republic of  Armenia expresses its confidence in the peace agenda based on the  trilateral statements of November 9, 2020, January 11, 2021, October  31, 2022 and the quadrilateral statement of October 6, 2022."