Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan 30 August 2016

According to information of mass media Armenian side under the pretext of so-called “25th anniversary of the independence” of illegal regime established in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan plans to organize the conference in Yerevan on September 2-3 and take the participants to the seized lands. There are also plans to organize the international youth conference in Khankandi on September 15-18, and other provocative events.    

It is well known that Armenia has unleashed war against Azerbaijan, by using force occupied twenty percent of Azerbaijan’s territories and ethnically cleansed about one million Azerbaijanis from those areas, and committed numerous other war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the acts of genocide. 

The illegal regime established by Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is ultimately nothing other than the product of aggression and occupation; it is under Armenia’s direction and control and survives by virtue of its military, political, financial and other support, as was also confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights in its judgment of 16 June 2015 on the case of Chiragov and others v. Armenia.

The international community has consistently deplored, in the strongest terms, the use of military force against Azerbaijan and the resulting occupation of its territories. In 1993, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolutions 822 (1993), 853 (1993), 874 (1993) and 884 (1993), condemning the use of force against Azerbaijan and occupation of its territories and reaffirming the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and the inviolability of its internationally recognized borders. In those resolutions, the Security Council reaffirmed that the Nagorno-Karabakh region is part of Azerbaijan and called for immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying forces from all occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Other international organizations have adopted a similar position.

Instead of taking constructive steps towards the resolution of the conflict further provocative events planned by Armenia under the pretext of so-called “25th anniversary of the independence” of illegal regime are contrary to the spirit of Vienna and Sankt-Petersburg meetings of the Presidents, undermine the negotiation process mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and detrimental to the efforts to build the durable peace in the region. They only serve for futile efforts of propagating the illegal regime and deliberate provocation.

We do call upon persons who are invited to the activities under the pretext of “25th anniversary of the independence” of illegal regime to respect the norms and principles of international law and to refrain from attending these provocative events and visiting the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. The visitors to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan violate the national legislation of Azerbaijan and will be addressed by the Government of Azerbaijan accordingly, including a ban will be put on their future visits to Azerbaijan.