THE DECLARATION BY THE MILLI MAJLIS OF THE REPUBLIC OF AZERBAIJAN

Regarding the 5 October 2023 Resolution of

The European Parliament

The Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan categorically objects to the biased and far from objective resolution of the European Parliament dated 5 October 2023 and strongly deplores this move targeting our country. We wish to remind all those concerned that Azerbaijan has no outstanding obligations to the European Parliament. It might be recommended that the European Parliament busy itself with addressing the issues of the Islamophobia and antisemitism rampaging all over Europe as well as the mass and flagrant violation of migrants’ rights and other problems of the same ilk.

The resolution was drawn at the instigation of the French Government and is based on false information mostly fed by the anti-Azerbaijani, Islamophobic parliamentarians of this country. Such a step taken by the European Parliament once again makes the EP’s reliance upon double standards only too vividly demonstrable. The European Parliament had shown disregard for the calamities birthed by the close to 30 years of occupation of 20 per cent of the internationally recognised territory of Azerbaijan, the ethnic cleansing, the Khojali Genocide, the fate of the more than 1 million refugees and IDP, the coventration of towns and villages and the destruction of historical, cultural and religious heritage. On the other hand, the European Parliament adopting such a resolution in defence of the fake regime created by the Republic of Armenia means supporting separatism following the anti-terror measures carried out against the military forces of the Republic of Armenia and the unlawful Armenian armed formations that had remained in the Azerbaijani territory.

France, the principal initiator behind this resolution, has become the major obstacle to achieving peace and security in the South Caucasus. France, which had failed in various regions of the world, wishes to turn the South Caucasus into a region of instability by pushing it towards further hazards. It is a manifestation of France’s crusader policy to support Armenian separatism in the Garabagh Region of Azerbaijan whilst attempting to employ its ghastly new colonialism experience in the South Region, exaggerating the Christianity factor and regarding the erstwhile conflict through the prism of religious prejudice.

That the European Parliament would support the so-called ‘Nagorno Karabakh Republic’ after the latter’s declaration of its own dissolution testifies to political hypocrisy and only serves to aggravate the regional situation again. The European Parliament now becomes responsible for the longevity of the occupation and the killing tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis by supporting this fake entity that had been shaped during the occupation of the Azerbaijani lands.

It is through such biased and partial activity precisely that the European Parliament deals its own reputation a devastating blow and manifests only too clearly that it has become a puppet in the hands of the Armenian Lobby and the forces that support it. It is the consequence of the anti-Azerbaijani and Islamophobic course of the European Parliament that the relations between it and Azerbaijan are on a low level. A certain number of MEPs represent not the interests of their constituents but the agendas of lobby groups. Such conduct, besides, is a manifestation of chauvinism and extreme right thinking. The European Parliament jeopardises the EU’s policy concerning the South Caucasus by retaining such a mistaken stance.

Contrary to what is maintained in the resolution, the Government of Azerbaijan is implementing comprehensive arrangements meant to resolve the social, humanitarian, economic and infrastructure issues in the Garabagh Region seeking to ensure sustainable reintegration of the Armenian residents of the Garabagh Region of the Republic of Azerbaijan into Azerbaijani society and allow them to use the protection of the Azerbaijani State.

The European Parliament’s claiming, in blatant contradiction of the resolutions brought forth by the UN, the Committee of the International Red Cross, the UN High Commissariat for Refugees and other international organisations, that the Armenians residents who have left the region of their own accord they have been driven from those territories by force is intended to mislead international community.

The Milli Majlis of the Azerbaijan Republic  calls upon the leadership of the European Parliament to stop the destructive and biased forces entrenched in corruption and instead to support the efforts being made to establish peace and stability in the region by adopting objective documents reflecting new realities in the South Caucasus Region.

(this Declaration of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan was passed at the parliamentary sitting of 6 October 2023).