Press Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Aykhan Hajizade expressed his attitude towards the views expressed by the Prime Minister of Armenia against Azerbaijan during his speech at the “Yerevan Dialogue” forum on September 10.
Oku.Az A. Hajizade’s commentary is presented:
“The accusations made by the Prime Minister of Armenia during his speech at the forum called “Yerevan Dialogue” on September 10, both in relation to the draft “peace agreement” and the tripartite statement of November 10 in general, are a clear distortion of reality.
Calls by Armenian officials to sign a draft “peace agreement” with the removal of unagreed provisions and attempts to postpone the solution of existing problems in bilateral relations to the next stage are unacceptable.
We remind you once again that no matter in what form the Armenian side intends to sign the draft “peace agreement”, the main condition for signing a real and lasting peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia is Armenia, which clearly refers to the Act of Independence of Armenia, which calls for the “unification of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.” It is the cessation of ongoing territorial claims against Azerbaijan, which are set out in numerous legal and political documents of this country, including the Constitution.
As regards the claims that there are territorial claims against Armenia in the Constitutional Law of Azerbaijan, let us note once again that the attempt to create parallelism and equality between the Constitution of Azerbaijan and the Constitution of Armenia will not yield any results. Unlike the Constitution of Armenia, the Constitutional Law on State Independence of 1991 and the Declaration of Independence of 1918 referred to in the Constitution of Azerbaijan do not contain any territorial claims against Armenia.
It is completely unreasonable for the Armenian side to claim that the territorial claim contained in the Constitution of this country is harmless, pointing to the provision “no party may invoke its internal legislation for failure to fulfill its obligations under the peace agreement.” in the draft peace agreement. We note once again that it is a well-known fact that no international agreement is superior to the Constitution.
Regarding the Prime Minister’s statement that Azerbaijan and Armenia mutually recognize each other’s territorial integrity within the framework of the Almaty Declaration, we would like to recall that the country represented by the Prime Minister blatantly violated this obligation and occupied the territories of Azerbaijan.
On the issue of openness of communications, the Prime Minister of Armenia once again misinterpreted the commitments he made. Paragraph 9 of the tripartite declaration clearly sets out Armenia’s obligations and how to organise control of transport links.
In general, after the signing of the tripartite statement, the Armenian side, which continued its military activities in the territories of Azerbaijan until September 2023 and did not withdraw the Armenian armed forces from the territories of Azerbaijan, allegedly hindered the return of refugees and internally displaced persons, carried out ethnic cleansing against local Armenians – prisoners of war. Claiming that they were not returned is a distortion of reality. At the same time, it is another slander that people of Armenian origin leave Azerbaijan and move to Armenia and other countries after the anti-terrorist measures of 2023 as ethnic cleansing.
As for the return of prisoners of war, Azerbaijan has no obligation to release war criminals or representatives of the separatist junta regime. Following the principle of humanism, Azerbaijan handed over each of the prisoners of war to Armenia. However, the mass arrests and persecution of prisoners of war by the Armenian state after their return by Azerbaijan caused particular surprise against the background of this state’s “care” for its citizens.
We call on the Armenian side, which continues aggressive defamatory rhetoric against our country using various platforms, to stop making statements that harm the prospects for peace.”
