Azerbaijani media today focused on remarks made by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at a conference in Baku today entitled “Right to Return: Advancing Justice for Azerbaijanis Expelled from Armenia”.

“Armenia must begin negotiations with the community and take practical steps toward restoring the fundamental rights of Western Azerbaijanis. Furthermore, Armenia should grant permission for a UNESCO mission to visit and monitor the situation concerning the destruction and distortion of the historical and cultural heritage of the Azerbaijani people and cooperate on this matter,” Aliyev said according to the Azerbaijani media.

Aliyev, during a speech on March 16, 2024 at the summit of the Heads of State of the Organization of Turkic States in Ankara, described present-day Armenia as part of “Western Azerbaijan”.

He said Azerbaijanis “were driven out forcefully from the territory of present-day Armenia” in 1991 and seek the right to return to their “historical lands”.

The Armenian government immediately condemned Aliyev’s remarks.

“Presenting the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia under the fictitious name Western Azerbaijan, the President of Azerbaijan grossly violates the UN Charter, the UN GA Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the UN Charter, the Alma-Ata Declaration, but also his own commitments undertaken by the Prague and Sochi statements to which he is referring in this exact speech,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry declared.

The ministry also accused Baku of preventing the return of forcibly displaced Nagorno Karabakh Armenians to their homes now under Azerbaijani control. 

Photo: REUTERS/Annegret Hilse