Foreign Ministry: Armenia should admit its guilt, not blame Azerbaijan

“The unsubstantiated allegations of the Armenian Foreign Ministry about the alleged massacre against the Armenian population in Baku in January 1990 are propaganda aimed at hiding the genocide historically carried out by the Armenian side against the civilian population of Azerbaijan, the policy of ethnic cleansing, the brutal murder of 613 civilians in the city of Khojaly in one night,” Report informs, citing Leyla Abdullayeva, spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

“We note with regret that stories in which Armenians are presented as victims formed the ideological basis of Armenian nationalism for decades, which gave impetus to the territorial claims of Armenia to Azerbaijan, led to a devastating conflict that caused great suffering to hundreds of thousands of people. While the issues of normalization of post-conflict interstate relations are the subject of discussion, repeated statements by the Armenian Foreign Ministry with such unfounded and destructive statements indicate that the opposite side does not seek to normalize relations, but poisons its society with harmful ideas.

“Since the late 1980s, Armenia’s open territorial claims to Azerbaijan have been accompanied by massacres, torture, and persecution, as well as the forcible resettlement of about 250,000 Azerbaijanis from their historical places of residence on the territory of the Armenian SSR. Unfortunately, so far not a single person has been held accountable for these and many other crimes committed by Armenia against Azerbaijanis.

“As is known, on the night of January 19-20, 1990, the Soviet army committed a massacre against peaceful Azerbaijanis, and the responsibility for this crime lies with the former Soviet leadership. The January events of 1990 could not break the will of the Azerbaijani people, our country restored its state independence.

“Instead of unreasonably blaming Azerbaijan, the Armenian Foreign Ministry should admit that for decades, due to the policy of ethnic cleansing personally approved by former presidents and the occupation policy that lasted for almost 30 years, the fundamental rights of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis were grossly violated. It must admit that the perpetrators must be held accountable so that such crimes do not happen again in the future,” Leyla Abdullayeva said.