Category: 2020

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 24

Trend:

Ukraine has banned holding any events related to the so-called “Armenian genocide”, Trend reports referring to Turkish media.

According to the information, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has also warned officials of the country against using the phrase such as “Armenian genocide”.

Baku, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:

Armenia is not capable of exerting pressure on Turkey by fabrications about the so-called “genocide”, Turkish presidential administration told Trend on April 24.

As the presidential administration noted, Armenia hasn’t presented any evidence that there was a so-called “genocide” of Armenians in Turkey.

“Turkey has repeatedly appealed to Armenia to open historical archives for investigating the events of 1915. But Yerevan doesn’t respond to this, which once again proves that no “genocide” of Armenians took place,” the administration said.

The administration noted that during the events of 1915 on the territory of the Ottoman Empire, both Turks and Arabs, Kurds and representatives of other nations suffered.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey’s predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, allegedly carried out so-called “genocide” against the Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Elchin Mehdiyev – Trend:

The attitude of Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan to the statement voiced by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov concerning the negotiations to resolve the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict during the video conference on April 21 is a provocation, Head of the Azerbaijani Parliamentary Committee on International and Inter-Parliamentary Relations Samad Seyidov said.

Seyidov made the remark at the meeting of the Azerbaijani parliament, Trend reports on April 24.

“It is necessary to take measures so that it would be the last Armenian provocation,” the committee head added. “The international organizations know that Armenia will do everything to maintain the status quo. Armenia committed all crimes against humanity for the occupation of lands to be continued and the status quo to be maintained.”

The head of the committee emphasized that Armenia is fully responsible for the violation of the negotiation process.

“The OSCE Minsk Group has expressed its attitude towards this issue,” Seyidov added. “Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also openly declared his position: “Karabakh is Azerbaijan!”.

“No international organization has recognized the so-called “election” held in the occupied Azerbaijani lands,” the head of the committee added. “President Ilham Aliyev put an end to another Armenian attempt to hold talks in trilateral format at the Munich Security Conference.”

Seyidov suggested holding hearings on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in parliamentary committees by inviting the representatives of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry to these hearings.

Speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament Sahiba Gafarova said that the proposal will be taken into account.

Earlier, answering Trend’s question during the briefing, Russian foreign minister Lavrov stressed that of course, the UN Security Council’s resolutions on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are the well-known documents.

“They were adopted at the height of the hostilities, and envisaged, first of all, the complete cessation of hostilities and switching to the conflict settlement,” the Russian foreign minister added. “They confirmed the territorial integrity of the Azerbaijan Republic.”

“But they also demanded to stop the war and start negotiations,” Lavrov said. “Since then, the negotiations have started more than once. There were agreements in 2001 and subsequent agreements in different formats.”

“So far, the format of negotiations has already been established with Baku, Yerevan, the OSCE Minsk Group represented by three co-chairs and the personal representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office,” the Russian foreign minister added. “The format is useful and good. This format reflects the requirement of the UN Security Council about the necessity to end the war and begin to negotiate.”

The Russian foreign minister added that there are Madrid principles, there are documents that Russia prepared in 2010-2011, which is known as the Kazan document.

“There are the projects that were distributed at the meeting of the Russian, Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers with the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in April 2019 in Moscow and are now being actively discussed,” Lavrov added.

“These documents envisage phased settlement of the conflict, assuming at the first stage the solution of the most pressing problems – liberating of a number of districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh region and unblocking transport, economic and other communications,” the Russian foreign minister said.

“So I am convinced that when we will decide to sign these documents, this will be the most important step in the implementation of the UN Security Council’s resolutions that demanded to end the war and to start negotiations,” Lavrov said. “We have started negotiations, now we need to come to an agreement. We are striving for this as the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.”

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 24

By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:

The letter dated 15 April 2020 from the Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General on the so-called “elections” held by Armenia in Azerbaijan’s occupied lands has been published as the document of the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council, Trend reports.

The letter says it is not a coincidence that these so-called “elections” took place on 31 March – the Day of Genocide of Azerbaijanis, commemorated in Azerbaijan in memory of those thousands of civilians killed as a result of Armenian offensives in 1918.

“No doubt, such an ostentatious and cynical action will serve for nothing but to deepen mistrust and narrow the already elusive prospects of peace and reconciliation,” reads the document.

The document says that these so-called “elections” were held despite the unprecedented spread of the coronavirus pandemic across the globe, thus once again vividly demonstrating that Armenia subordinates the well-being and safety of residents under occupation to political expediency, in total disregard of public morality and in violation of international humanitarian law.

“As a consequence, the first coronavirus cases in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan were reported immediately after these so-called “elections”. The “elections” were held in an environment of total illegitimacy, which stems from the continuing military occupation and ethnic cleansing of the territories of Azerbaijan and a clear violation of the Constitution and legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the norms and principles of international law. The international community once again has overwhelmingly reaffirmed its consistent and principled position of collective non-recognition of the situation resulting from the occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan by rejecting and invalidating the so-called “elections”, which thus have no effect whatsoever,” reads the letter.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.