Azerbaijan calls on Armenia to ‘accept reality’

ISTANBUL (AA) – Azerbaijan on Sunday called on Armenia “to accept the reality” that emerged as a result of the 44-day conflict between the two countries and refrain from taking “aggressive steps.”

“To label the return of Azerbaijani IDPs (internally displaced persons) to their homes as a ‘violation’ of the Trilateral Statement and ‘illegal settlement’ is yet another clear manifestation of hypocrisy by Armenia,” Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizada said in a statement, in response to a statement by the Armenian Foreign Ministry the previous day.

Hajizada said that Armenia acted in violation of international law and four UN Security Council resolutions by occupying Azerbaijani lands for nearly 30 years, and also “forcibly expelled about 1 million Azerbaijanis from their homelands, and brutally destroyed all Azerbaijani historical and religious monuments in the region.”

“This statement demonstrates Armenia’s feature of racial discrimination and hatred,” he added.

The spokesman also said that the Yerevan’s referring to Azerbaijani settlements with “fictional names” is “another manifestation of Armenia’s territorial claims against Azerbaijan.”

It said that Armenia’s claim that Azerbaijan is not interested in a peace agreement is “another obvious example of deception.”

“With such statements, Armenia is trying to cover up its artificial delaying of the peace treaty negotiation process, as well as its recent blow to the process by refusing to attend the next round of negotiations in December 2022,” the statement added.

It further said that Armenia is “interfering” with the process of the reintegration of the Armenian residents in the Karabakh region.