Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova and the Heads of the working groups for inter-parliamentary connexions and Azerbaijani delegations to inter-parliamentary organisations have issued an appeal to heads of inter-parliamentary organisations and national parliaments in relation to the anti-terrorist measures initiated in the Garabagh Region of Azerbaijan in response to provocations of Armenian armed forces.

The appeal emphasises Azerbaijan’s unwavering commitment to normalising relations with Armenia and signing a peace pact to be based on the principles of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. Also, our country is making efforts to reintegrate the Azerbaijani citizens of Armenian extraction in her Garabagh Region complete with granting them all the rights and freedoms as per the national Constitution and the international treaties to which Azerbaijan is a party. Azerbaijan has demonstrated her fidelity to this process repeatedly since November 2020. Azerbaijan’s desire to soften the tensions is also spelled by that the Armenian residents of the Garabagh Region were allowed to use both the Aghdam-Khankendi and Lachin-Khankendi roads to carry in cargoes using the International Committee of the Red Cross vehicles.

It is stated with regret in the same document that Armenia had continued attempting to harm the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country as well as to make certain there is lasting separatism in our territories in every way possible and despite all those efforts on Azerbaijan’s side. Military provocations along the not delimited border and within the Garabagh Region, the financial, military and technical aid to the 10,000-strong military force deployed within the Azerbaijani territory illegally, the mining of our lands, cases of electronic interference with civilian aircraft of Azerbaijan and other countries, unfounded allegations of ‘blockade’ and ‘humanitarian crisis’ with the accompanying political blackmailing, congratulatory messages to the illegal regime and the fictitious ‘presidential election’ of the equally as fictitious separatist regime are among those attempts that Armenia had made.

It is said in the appeal that Azerbaijan has repeatedly disclosed the threat to regional peace and stability posed by the Armenian military detachments remaining in the Garabagh Region of Azerbaijan despite the provisions of the Trilateral Statement of 10 November 2020.

Lastly, the Armenian armed forces unleashed large-scale provocations and terror killing and wounding civilians and military service personnel alike in the Garabagh Region of Azerbaijan on 19 September.

In response to all those, Azerbaijan initiated the anti-terrorist measures the sole purpose of which consists in disarming the armed units of Armenia, remove them from our territories, render their military infrastructure harmless, ensure the security of the civilian population and restore the constitutional order of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The appropriate Azerbaijani agencies did stress the fact that the action taken is exclusively targeting the illegal armed groups and military infrastructure whereas civilians are in no event a target.

The authors of the appeal insist that the sovereignty and territorial wholeness of Azerbaijan matter as much as those of any country and that Azerbaijan possesses the lawful right to protect her sovereignty and territorial integrity by every and all the means stipulated in international law.

Lastly, this is an appeal to the international community to support the anti-terrorist arrangement of Azerbaijan, to refrain from encroachments upon Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the name of lasting peace and stability in the region and to apply pressure to Armenia to make it act responsibly in the context of the normalisation process.

The Press and Public Relations Department

The Milli Majlis