ISLAMABAD, NOV 1: Ambassador of
Azerbaijan to Pakistan Khazar Farhadov on Monday appreciated Pakistan for its
position and support on issues of Azeri territorial integrity before and during
the patriotic war against Armenia, describing it “a true demonstration of
brotherhood.”
“During the patriotic war, the
government, the Parliament and people of Pakistan morally and politically
supported us, condemning Armenian aggression and supporting our just position
to restore territorial integrity,” Ambassador Farhadov said while addressing a
news conference here to mark 1st anniversary of ‘44-day Patriotic War’ against
Armenia
During the war, the Azeri forces
liberated more than 300 cities and villages from 30-year illegal occupation of
Armenia. Azerbaijan, he said, being member of the Kashmir Contact Group of the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), fully supported the settlement of
the Kashmir issue in accordance with the relevant United Nations Security
Council resolutions.
He recalled that Armenia for
almost 30 years kept under occupation almost 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s
territory, committing notorious war crimes and crimes against humanity. Armenia
committed the Khojaly genocide in February 1992, killing hundreds of civilians,
including 106 women and 63 children.
As many as 1275 Azerbaijanis were
taken hostage, 150 of them are still missing. Armenia’s ethnic cleansing had
resulted in more than a million Azerbaijanis becoming refugees and internally
displaced persons. In 1993, he further highlighted that the UN Security Council
adopted four resolutions calling for the immediate, complete and unconditional
withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan.
However, these and all other
similar decisions adopted by relevant international organizations had been
ignored by Armenia, Ambassador Khazar Farhadov maintained. During the
occupation, he said, Armenia tried to maintain the status quo, adding
“unfortunately, no international sanctions had been imposed on Armenia to
ensure the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions.
The overthrow of the war criminal
regime in Armenia in 2018 was not accompanied by real changes.” In July 2020,
he said, Armenia committed a military provocation on the state border with
Azerbaijan and as a result of an artillery strike in the Tovuz region of
Azerbaijan as many as 13 servicemen and civilians were killed.
Moroever, in August last year,
the envoy said, an Armenian sabotage group tried to penetrate through the
former line of contact in order to commit terrorist acts against Azerbaijani
military servicemen and civilians, but was successfully neutralized by the
Azeri forces.
He said at the General Debates of
75th Session of the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2020, President Ilham
Aliyev warned that hostile statements and provocations of Armenian leadership
demonstrated that it was preparing for a new aggression against Azerbaijan.
“Three days later, on September
27 last year, Armenia launched a large-scale attack on Azerbaijani military
positions and civilians,” he added. In response, the ambassador narrated that
Azerbaijan launched a counterattack in its own territories against Armenia,
using the right to self-defense enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter. For
44 days, the Armenian armed forces intensively fired on the regions and cities
along and also far from the front line, he added.
Armenia used ballistic missiles
such as the Scud and Iskander-M, as well as banned white phosphorus and cluster
munitions. As a result of these Armenian war crimes, more than 100 civilians,
including 11 children, were killed and more than 450 were injured.
More than 12,000 civilian
infrastructure, including individual houses, have been destroyed or severely
damaged in Azerbaijan. Armenia has attracted mercenaries and foreign fighters
from abroad and placed them against Azerbaijan. In total, he said, more than
300 cities and villages were liberated on the battlefield and Armenia had to
sign an act of capitulation on November 10, 2020.
Accordingly, Armenia was obliged
to withdraw its troops from the remaining parts of Azerbaijan’s territories,
namely Aghdam, Lachin and Kalbajar regions.
Khazar Farhadov said the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was left in the past and there was no administrative
territorial unit called Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan. “We have about 4,000
citizens registered as missing during the First Karabakh War.
Armenia must inform us about
their fate. We have solid evidence that almost all of them were tortured to
death by Armenian servicemen in violation of international humanitarian law and
buried in mass graves,” he said.
Answering a question, the envoy
said the patriotic war that ended with a victory of the brave Azerbaijani Army,
opened a new era, establishing international justice and changing realities in
the region
After the liberation, Azerbaijan
began to revive the liberated territories, which were completely destroyed by
Armenia, he said, adding his country began to rebuild and restore its
territories and in just 8 months, the Fizuli international airport had been
built in Azerbaijan, and work was underway in all the liberated territories.
Replying to another question, he
said direct flights between Azerbaijan and Pakistan would be operational soon
as the procedural work in that regard was almost completed, but unfortunately
it delayed due to COVID-19 restrictions in both the countries.
He said efforts were underway to
further promote the bilateral ties in diverse fields especially information
technology, education, health, science and technology, logistics and defense.
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