Azerbaijan will never allow a second Armenian state to be created in its historical lands, said President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.
He made the remarks addressing the opening ceremony of the international conference, titled “2017 – Year of Islamic Solidarity: Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue”, which kicked off in Baku Dec. 21.
President Aliyev said that the idea of creating a second Armenian state is a very ‘harmful, dangerous and sick logic.’
"Today, Azerbaijan, which has been living as an independent state for 26 years, is standing firmly on its own feet. Of course, our main problem is the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. As you know, Armenia has held 20 percent of our internationally recognized territories under occupation for more than 20 years. More than one million people were expelled from these lands, becoming refugees and internally displaced persons. A policy of ethnic cleansing was carried out against our people,” he said.
The Azerbaijani president also spoke about the genocide committed by Armenians in the town of Khojaly.
“The Khojaly genocide claimed the lives of more than 600 innocent civilians, including over 100 women and 60 children,” he noted.
The head of state stressed that the Khojaly genocide has been recognized by more than ten countries.
The president reminded that the United States adopted for resolutions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“These resolutions demand an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied Azerbaijani lands. But these resolutions remain on paper. Those who adopted these resolutions remain indifferent to this issue. Taking the advantage of it, Armenia, on the other hand, continues its occupation policy,” said President Aliyev.
He continued: “All the buildings have been destroyed in our occupied lands. Our historical and religious monuments, mosques have been destroyed by Armenians. Photos of these destroyed mosques have now been published on the Internet, so everyone can see it. The whole infrastructure has been destroyed. The OSCE has twice sent a fact-finding mission to the occupied lands. Those missions witnessed the same scenery and mentioned them in their reports.”
He noted that the position of Azerbaijani state on the conflict is fully based on international law.
“First of all, Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijan’s ancient, historical land, and on other hand, it is an integral part of Azerbaijan in terms of international law. The entire world knows Nagorno-Karabakh as Azerbaijan’s integral part. In this case, the conflict must be resolved solely on the basis of norms and principles of international law,” he said.
“The UN Security Council resolutions – there are no other superior documents than these documents in the world – must be fully implemented and the territorial integrity of our country must be restored. The Azerbaijani state and the Azerbaijani people will never allow the establishment of second Armenian state on its land,” added President Aliyev.
Speaking about self-determination of peoples, the head of state said that this issue can be resolved within the framework of territorial integrity of countries.
“As I noted, many countries in the world are multinational and multi-religious. The Armenian people decided on its self-determination and they have a state. Azerbaijan will never allow the second Armenian state to be established on historical Azerbaijani lands. This, in fact, is a very harmful, dangerous and sick logic. Armenians live in many countries. If they would desire to enforce their self-determination in all countries of their residence as in Azerbaijan, and resort to aggressive separatism, then we will see what will be the policies of those countries,” added President Aliyev.
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