Azerbaijani armed forces, in addition to invading the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, continue to make daily statements threatening the population of a number of villages in Nagorno-Karabakh using loudspeakers, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the Government session.
“Using loudspeakers, Azerbaijanis demand people to leave their homes, otherwise threatening to evict them by force. This is an obvious demand for ethnic cleansing. For the residents of the villages with the population confessing the Armenian Apostolic Christian faith, even at night hours, the Azerbaijanis turn on the Muslim Azan with loudspeakers. Of course, we have great respect for the Islamic religion and civilization, but what Azerbaijan is doing is violence against the freedom of conscience and religion, a means of inciting religious hatred and ultimately offending the religious feelings of our compatriots.”
Pashinyan recalled thestatement made by the minister of culture of Azerbaijan on February 23 that “a working group has been set up to eliminate the false traces left by Armenians on the temples of Caucasian Albanians, consisting of specialists who know Albanian history and architecture.” This means that Azerbaijan is publicly and officially launching the falsification and elimination of the Armenian cultural heritage under its disposal. And the statement of the minister of culture is not a coincidence at all. During his visit to Hadrut region on March 16, 2021, the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, speaking about the Armenian Church of the Holy Mother of God in Tsakuri, stated: “Just as the Armenians desecrated our mosques, in the same way they desecrated the ancient Albanian temple. But we will restore. All these writings are false, they are written later.” These steps of Azerbaijan are an open challenge to the December 7 decision of the UN International Court of Justice on the provisional measures, which clearly obliges Azerbaijan. “To take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration against the Armenian cultural heritage, including churches, other places of worship, monuments, sights, cemeteries, artifacts.”
The Prime Minister said that all these situations should be subject to proper international investigation and assessment. “We expect the international community to make a targeted assessment of Azerbaijan’s actions in Nagorno-Karabakh, because the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh is being intimidated every day, literally every day (including gas terrorism) and its goal is to evict people from their homes and homeland.”
“I once again express the readiness of the Republic of Armenia to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan. Armenia is ready for the immediate start of peace talks. President of the European Council Charles Michel, President of Azerbaijan and I are scheduled to meet in Brussels on April 6. And I hope that during that meeting, all issues related to the start of peace talks will be discussed and agreed with the president of Azerbaijan.”
