Discrepancy between Aliyev’s statements and international documents

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and official Baku constantly advocate political theses that have little to do with internationally accepted documents and principles. They are mainly related to the Artsakh conflict in the context of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations.

For instance, on April 2, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev claimed that “the conflict is between Armenia and Azerbaijan since Armenia has occupied our territories, and for that reason, talks shall be held between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”

Nevertheless, there are several important documents that recognize the Armenians in Artsakh and their government as Artsakh conflict side. In particular, in 1994, the ceasefire negotiations were held in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek in early May with the participation of Artsakh Parliament Speaker Karen Baburyan. The famous Bishkek protocol was also signed by Baburyan, together with parliament speakers of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Then, Defense Ministers of the three sides – Serzh Sargsyan (Armenia), Samvel Babayan (NKR) and Mammadrafi Mammadov (Azerbaijan) signed a ceasefire agreement. In other words, Azerbaijan actually recognized the NKR government as a conflict side without which it was impossible to reach a ceasefire.

The second thesis constantly used by the Azerbaijani leadership concerns statements about the withdrawal of Armenia from the “occupied territories” of Azerbaijan.

None of the 4 resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council in 1993 speaks of the “occupied territories” by Armenia. Moreover, Resolution 822 refers to “local Armenian forces” in Karabakh which have taken under control the Karvachar region (Kelbajar). Both resolutions (853 and 884) call on Armenia to “use its influence” on the Karabakh authorities to follow the previous resolutions.

Consequently, statement by the President of Azerbaijan has again distorted the facts given in international documents. It should be emphasized once again that Armenia has not occupied territories of any country and is not the “accused” by international documents as official Baku tries to show.

Hovhannes Nazaretyan