We refer to the hearing in the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, due on 14 September and intended to concern a part of the territory of Azerbaijan recognised as such internationally.

The organisation of this hearing did not surprise us at all, what with it only being another manifestation of the notorious prejudice, discrimination and manipulations against our state long espoused by certain circles in the United States Congress.

From the day one of Azerbaijan’s independence, radical Armenian groups and the forces in the US Congress colluded and opted for a course on which they have remained to this day, namely, one of emboldening the aggression against Azerbaijan, inciting radicals with impunity to commit grave crimes causing suffering to people. Consequently, the Republic of Armenia expelled 250,000 Azerbaijanis from their ancestral lands in its territory, kept 20 per cent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognised territory under occupation for three decades and subjected more than 700,000 Azerbaijanis of various ethnic and religious backgrounds to ethnic cleansing.

 The international community including the United Nations and other international organisations condemned those barbaric acts – but not so the US Congress, in which the radical’s associates managed to bar aid to the victim of aggression – the people of Azerbaijan. Moreover, the aggressor was exempted from the well-established United States policy not to provide funds to ‘a government of an Independent State of the former Soviet Union if such a government directs any action in violation of the territorial integrity or national sovereignty of any other Independent State of the former Soviet Union’. Despite this policy, aid was lavished on Armenia throughout the close to 30 years of the unlawful Armenian occupation of Azerbaijan’s territory and ethnic cleansing of its population.

All that, coupled with attempts to legitimise the results of Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan in flagrant violation of the fundamental principles of the international law only prolonged human suffering and undermined peace, stability and prosperity for many decades, much to the detriment of the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples alike.

The prospect of peace only returned when the multi-ethnic and multireligious people of Azerbaijan united in their desire to fight the injustice of aggression and illegal occupation and, ultimately, restored the sovereignty and territorial integrity of their state – the Republic of Azerbaijan  – in 2020. This victory of justice brought along the prospect of peace, normalisation and reconciliation to the region. Azerbaijan has seized this opportunity and proposed peace treaty to Armenia to be based on the international law. This, supported internationally including by the United States Government, has achieved tangible results as Armenia relinquished its territorial claims and recognised Azerbaijan’s sovereignty including the Karabakh region in 5 October 2022

However, every instance on which the peace treaty is within reach, Armenia reverts to its notorious tactics used for the last 30 years: imitation of talks, back-stepping from previous agreements, and escaping from implementation of undertaken commitments. Notably, Armenia does not honour its obligations to withdraw its armed forces illegally present in the territory of Azerbaijan, which presents itself as the biggest source of instability in the region. Moreover, it also supports separatism in Azerbaijan through all possible means while turning residents of Armenian origin into hostages, using them to further their malign agenda.

In this context, the way the aforementioned hearing is framed contributes to the agenda of instigating instability and conflict in the region. Importantly, aiding and shielding Armenia’s aggressive agenda against Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity for the last 30 years did not bring benefits to the United States. It rather damaged the strategic interests and presence of the United States in the strategically important region, of which Azerbaijan is the pillar.

Despite efforts to the contrary, Azerbaijan will prevent attempts to undermine its sovereignty, unwaveringly pursue peace, normalisation and reintegration of its citizens of Armenian origin into its Constitutional framework