Monday, August 5 2024 19:49

ArmInfo. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responded to the remarks made by Toivo Klaar, the EU Special Representative, regarding the right of the Artsakh people to return to their homes. 

"Azerbaijan respects intention of returning only of those persons of Armenian origin who respect territorial integrity, sovereignty of the country," Vasif Aliyev, the  Deputy Press Secretary of the Foreign Ministry, stated, Azerbaijani media reported.  As ArmInfo previously reported, Klaar, in an interview with Jam-news, touching on the prospects of the return of the Artsakh people to their homes, expressed hope that the page of enmity and violence can finally be turned once and for all, for the benefit of all population in the region, including the Karabakh Armenians. 

"The EU has been very clear on the matter - and it is also my expectation - that the Karabakh Armenians will be part of the normalization process and that there will be direct talks between Baku and them about their safe and dignified return to their home region.  Azerbaijan does have an obligations in this regard, which, as it seems to me, it does not deny," the European official added.  According to him, the parameters and conditions of such a future must be found and agreed upon through an inclusive and mutually respectful dialogue. "Sometimes other issues are brought up in this context, such as the question of so-called "Western Azerbaijan". For me, these are completely distinct questions that cannot be mixed. 

The first is the facilitation of the return of the Karabakh Armenians to their ancestral homes, which is an obligation that Azerbaijan has.  The second is the question of Armenians who used to live in other parts of Azerbaijan, including in Baku, or of Azerbaijanis who used to live in Armenia.  Naturally they should also be able to visit the places where they or their families have lived, or even to return there, if they so wish, and this should likewise be a consequence of normalisation, but that is a wholly different issue from the specific question of the Karabakh Armenians," Klaar said.