Ambassador: Armenians do not have any special rights in Karabakh, higher priority than the rights of other citizens of Azerbaijan

"I am surprised that the issue of demining Azerbaijani territories has taken the last place in the list of EU regional priorities. For Azerbaijan, this is the highest priority problem."

According to Report, this was stated by the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the Netherlands Rahman Mustafayev in his speech at the international conference "South Caucasus and the European Union - overcoming challenges, seizing opportunities" held yesterday in The Hague, reacting to the speech of EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Toivu Klaar.

He informed the participants of the conference, which brought together experts from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, representatives of the EU, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and the diplomatic corps accredited in The Hague, about Azerbaijan's position on post-conflict settlement, the peace process with Armenia and relations with the EU.

R. Mustafayev sharply criticized the theses on the so-called. "the threat of ethnic cleansing in Karabakh" and "the right of the Armenians of Karabakh to security". The ambassador noted that ethnic cleansing did indeed take place in the region, but it took place in 1988-1990, when the occupying Armenian forces expelled all of its non-Armenian population from the region. The ambassador recalled that under Soviet Azerbaijan, the former NKAR was a multinational and poly-confessional region, with representatives of 46 ethnic groups living in it. All of them were expelled from their places of residence in Karabakh by the Armenian armed forces. The region has been turned into a mono-ethnic military base with destroyed cities, contaminated rivers, deforested areas and mined fields. Azerbaijan intends to restore this region and revive its multinational character.

Touching upon the thesis about the "Armenians' right to security", he stressed that the Armenians do not have any special, God-given rights in Karabakh, which are more priority than the rights of other citizens of Azerbaijan. This misconception is the fundamental problem of Armenian ideology and politics and the main obstacle to the peace process. The problem of rights and guarantees will be solved exclusively according to the formula "equality of all citizens before the law", no more and no less.

The Azerbaijani diplomat also criticized the calls of the representatives of the EU and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands "to intensify the dialogue between Baku and Khankendi." He noted that Khankendi is not the capital of any republic or autonomy, and that it is not even the center of the Khojaly region, on whose territory it is located. The administrative center of the region is the city of Khojaly, and relations between Baku and Khojaly will be built in the same way as relations between Baku and Shusha, Aghdam, Ganja, Khachmaz and other administrative centers of Azerbaijani regions. Of course, there will be contacts with representatives of the Armenian population of Karabakh, but with unconditional observance of Azerbaijani legislation.

source: report.az