The conflict that Armenia initiated in 1987 is known very well to have caused unparalleled suffering to the Azerbaijani people. More than a million Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their native lands consequent to Armenia's aggressive policies. The transformation of Azerbaijanis into refugees and internally displaced persons was not a side effect of the conflict, but rather the result of a deliberate and systematically carried out ethnic cleansing by Armenia.

Those crimes stemmed from racism that is deeply rooted in the Armenian political environment. Racism in Armenia is institutionalised and has become its state policy. This state carried out a total and systematic ethnic cleansing in its own territory as well as in the Azerbaijani lands that remained occupied for thirty years. Moreover, Armenia completely destroyed the Azerbaijani cultural heritage in those territories, pillaged Azerbaijan's natural resources as well as public and private property, and deliberately contaminated Azerbaijani lands with a large number of mines.

Only an ideology based on racial hatred, radical nationalism and violent extremism could have brought forth such large-scale and atrocious crimes.

The released video of a speech by the former President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan, dated 23 July 1993, reaffirms the above. In his speech, Ter-Petrosyan describes the ethnic cleansing of the Azerbaijanis in Armenia and in the occupied Azerbaijani territories as ‘a historic achievement’. We are giving his declaration as a direct quote.

‘Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh have solved the problem of the Armenian people which had remained unsolved for 600 years. Armenia and Artsakh are completely purged of foreigners. I repeat, we had this 600-year-old problem and the people of Armenia will comprehend its significance for another 600 years. Imagine that, if we had 180,000 foreigners in Armenia today, our state would not have existed then. We would have never been able to protect Zangazur, our North-eastern provinces and the shores of Sevan. We would have had several new autonomies. Let us remember that the Azerbaijanis had commanded majority in the three provinces of Vardenis, Masis and Amasya – and there were many of them all over the Zangazur zone. That problem has been solved.’

The statement which Levon Ter-Petrosyan made as President and which presents the occupation and ethnic cleansing committed during his presidency as a national policy proves unequivocally the responsibility of Armenia as a state for those crimes – as much as it proves the systematic and organised manner in which those crimes were committed.

It should be mentioned that this policy remained unchanged regardless of who was in power in Armenia. Levon Ter-Petrosyan's successor, former President and bloodthirsty war criminal Robert Kocharyan, promoted racist ideas such as the ‘ethnic and genetic incompatibility’ of Azerbaijanis and Armenians. Another ex-President and war criminal, Serge Sarkisyan, openly boasted about his role in the mass massacre of Azerbaijani civilians in Khojali in 1992 and officially adopted the Nazi ideology of General Garegin Nzhdeh as state policy. The current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who once promoted expansionist policies by stating that ‘Karabakh is Armenia,’ continues the racist policies of his predecessors, preventing the return of Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia.

Armenia's extensive military preparations pose a serious threat to peace and security given this state's implementation of racist and revanchist policies.

President Ilham Aliyev indicated clearly the scale of the threat posed by Armenia’s state-level racism, violent extremism, revanchism and militarism in his interview to Azerbaijani mass media on 7 January 2025. We support fully and unconditionally President Ilham Aliyev's view on establishing peace and stability in the region as well as the demands addressed to Armenia. Also, taking this opportunity, we express our deep gratitude to the President for his firm support for the peaceful, safe, and dignified return of the Western Azerbaijanis to their historical homeland.

The international community, including parliaments, should not remain indifferent to the racism and human rights violations carried out by Armenia at the state level as well as its rapid and large-scale armament. As a member of the United Nations and a party to many international human rights conventions, Armenia must be held accountable for these actions, and a decision ought to be made to prevent its armament.

We call on the international community to condemn the systematic racism and ethnic cleansing policies carried out by Armenia at the state level, and we demand that the Armenian Government immediately halt its armament, abandon its racist policies, ensure the safe and dignified return of Western Azerbaijanis to their homeland, and initiate dialogue with the Western Azerbaijan Community to achieve this goal.