A group of deputies of the seventh convocation Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan appealed to Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov.
Oku.Az submit the application:
“We would like to point out that the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev With the restoration of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our country under the leadership, the foundation for long-term peace and stability in the region was created. After ending thirty years of occupation and injustice, Azerbaijan guaranteed not only its national interests, but also the supremacy of international law.
This situation allows our country to contribute more actively to the solution of universal problems. Shortly after Azerbaijan regained its sovereignty on September 20, 2023, on December 9 of the same year, unanimous support for Azerbaijan’s decision to host the 29th meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) was the The international recognition of Azerbaijan by the states of the world is proof of their great support for its vision on issues of peace and development.
Azerbaijan’s ongoing preparation for COP29 at a high level is an indicator of how serious it is about resolving the fundamental issues of climate change that concern humanity as a whole.
We regret to note that several circles took advantage of the fact that Azerbaijan will host COP29 and decided to force Azerbaijan to accept some issue. The appeal sent by a group of members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives to the Secretary of State of this country, Anthony Blinken, on October 3, 2024, is also of this type.
It should be clear that we have no doubt that the appeal in question was organized by the State Department. As President Ilham Aliyev underlined on October 4 in the city of Jabrayl, the State Department writes letters to threaten Azerbaijan.
This call, which includes racial discrimination against Azerbaijan, is full of slander, goes against the spirit of dialogue, calls for the release of war criminals and the militarization of Armenia, is unacceptable, goes against international law and shows that The United States is not interested in the smooth continuation of bilateral relations.
The authors of the appeal, which made false comments to Azerbaijan in the field of respect for human rights and international humanitarian law, were told that millions of civilians were killed, many people were tortured and punished without legal process during the wars fought by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world we would like to remember it. The United States, which thrives on human rights, has not joined the major human rights conventions. It is the United States that has not allowed the UN Special Rapporteur against Torture to visit Guantánamo for many years.
The United States, co-chair of the Minsk Group, never realized its responsibility and, together with France, tried to keep Azerbaijani lands under occupation. The cultural heritage, mosques and historical monuments of the Azerbaijani people were destroyed, insulted and entire cities and towns were wiped from the face of the earth in the territories once occupied by the United States. The United States has never condemned these barbaric acts by Armenia.
These attacks, which began after the 2020 Patriotic War and intensified last year, arise from the United States’ refusal to accept the restoration of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Azerbaijan, its religious and ethnic discrimination against the people of Azerbaijan and their intention to create a new conflict in the region. Why does the United States, which has invaded several countries around the world with false accusations, evaluate the operation carried out by Azerbaijan to liberate its territory from occupation and end separatism as a “military aggression”? The congressmen, who constantly talk about the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Armenia, have never talked about respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
Why don’t congressmen who accuse Azerbaijan of “ethnic cleansing” react to the deportation of all Azerbaijanis from Armenia, to the calls of the West Azerbaijan community to Anthony Blinken?
The congressmen have reached such a level that they use the article of the Armenian author as “evidence” against Azerbaijan. Why do the congressmen who accuse Azerbaijan of not wanting to sign the peace treaty “forget” that the initiative for the peace treaty came from Azerbaijan and that its text was prepared by Azerbaijan, and still do not condemn the inclusion of territorial claims against our country in the Constitution of Armenia?
What do congressmen mean by “unresolved territorial conflicts in Azerbaijan”? The Karabakh conflict has been resolved. The people of Azerbaijan, the State of Azerbaijan, have resolved the Karabakh conflict and the different opinions of those who live thousands of kilometers from Azerbaijan do not change the reality. The Azerbaijani people have returned to Karabakh and eastern Zangezur for good, and the reality today is that the houses built for former IDPs in Jabrayl are Azerbaijanis returning to their ancestral lands.
Don’t the congressmen know that the people they present as “political leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh” are war criminals, Khojaly executioners, arms dealers, financial fraudsters and oligarchs involved in all kinds of dirty deeds? Why does the United States defend those who were proud to commit the Khojaly genocide, grant visas to separatists and embrace them? Will those calling for the release of these criminals raise their voices regarding the disappearance of 4,000 Azerbaijanis whose fate has been unknown for more than 30 years?
Armenia, which congressmen consider a “democratic” country, is a country that occupied the territory of another country for 30 years, committed ethnic cleansing, suffered from the disease of national exceptionalism and has so far not tried military criminals, but converted them in heroes.
Let us remind once again that the Azerbaijani side has always shown patience and restraint in the advancement of bilateral relations and has adopted the line of continuing and developing the partnership between the two countries on issues of mutual interest. Azerbaijan has actively participated in cooperation on international security issues that are of greatest interest to the United States, has contributed to NATO operations at the request of the United States, and has participated in those operations with dignity. In summary, the Azerbaijani side behaved responsibly and constructively to establish and develop friendly relations with the United States in accordance with the interests of the people of the two countries and the objectives and principles of the United Nations Charter.
It should be noted with regret that, in return for Azerbaijan’s responsible and restrained behavior, the United States has behaved in a non-constructive manner since the first day we restored our independence. The series of measures against Azerbaijan that began with the adoption of the infamous amendment 907 is not interrupted. These are the same United States that imposed sanctions against Azerbaijan, not Armenia, after the Khojaly genocide and the occupation of Shusha and Lachin. For the past 30 years, the United States has turned a blind eye to the calamities committed by Armenia against the Azerbaijani people, the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, the expulsion of more than a million Azerbaijanis from the territory of Armenia and from the occupied lands of Azerbaijan . , the massive destruction of Azerbaijan’s cultural heritage, the destruction of hundreds of Azerbaijani cities and towns and the laying of millions of mines in our territories. In fact, the United States encouraged Armenia to continue its occupation and ethnic cleansing.
After Azerbaijan resolved the conflict by liberating its territories from Armenian occupation, the United States took steps to reignite the conflict. The United States and a number of other countries, on their initiative, allocated a large amount of financial aid to Armenia, thanks to which the rearmament of Armenia was ensured and this country was encouraged to adopt a non-constructive position in peace negotiations. At the meeting of the United States, the European Union and Armenia held in Brussels on April 5, 2024, Armenia was entrusted with a new war task. With this, the United States brings geopolitical competition to the South Caucasus and creates fault lines in the region.
In this context, the appeal by members of the US Congress to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken demonstrates that this country is not interested in the smooth continuation of bilateral relations.
While we note the determination of the Azerbaijani side to continue bilateral relations, we would like to emphasize that this is not possible with the efforts of a single party. Based on the principle of reciprocity and the goal of returning bilateral relations to a logical level, we believe that the time has come to respond to the aforementioned measures of the US side. We remind the congressmen who asked the State Department to put pressure on Azerbaijan and its President, that especially the events after 2020 have proven once again that Azerbaijan has never succumbed to any pressure, slander, slander, or threats, not even in the slightest against his will cannot affect. On the contrary, with these actions, the United States is losing its already sinking reputation in Azerbaijani society. This letter of ours also expresses the anger of the Azerbaijani people towards the double standards and false values of the United States. Such unfair and ridiculous accusations and threats against the strongest State in the region also show the inconsistency of the congressmen who signed the letter.
In this regard, we ask that you take the following steps to review relations between Azerbaijan and the United States:
• The current agreements between Azerbaijan and the United States, in particular the Joint Declaration “On Future Military and Defense Relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the United States” signed in 1997 and the “Transfer of Equipment between the Ministry of Defense of the “The Republic of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Defense of the United States of America” signed in 2013 Termination of the Mutual Purchase and Service Agreement;
• Immediate termination of negotiations on the conclusion of new contracts and the extension of existing contracts;
• Suspension of all projects implemented by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and non-governmental organizations in Azerbaijan and disallowance of new projects, as well as the termination of USAID activities in our country.”
