“Azerbaijani delegates repeated it several times. Maybe they want to convince themselves that the conflict is over. The conflict cannot end only because they announce it without eliminating the reasons,” said Arman Yeghoyan, a member of the Armenian delegation and a member of the Civil Contract faction of the National Assembly during the sittings of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly committees in Yerevan in response to the statement by the two Azerbaijani delegates that the Artsakh conflict has been resolved.
“Those reasons have become deeper, it is the hatred towards Armenians in Azerbaijan and everything that is connected with Armenia. One of the latest pieces of evidence is the erasure of the Armenian inscriptions from the churches. I would like to draw the attention of our European partners to this fact. What happened to the Armenian graves in Nakhichevan was destroyed and the river filled. 500,000 Armenians lived in Soviet Azerbaijan, where are they now? For example, where are the Armenians of Baku and Sumgait, what happened? If you say that Azerbaijan is a multicultural country, then where are those Armenians?”
Arman Yeghoyan asked the Azeri delegate, who insisted that Armenians as an ethnic group have the opportunity to reintegrate into Azerbaijan. “Sorry, but I do not understand what you did. Do you want to convince yourself that it is so?”
Read also
Arman Yeghoyan added. He stressed, “Achieving peace is a necessity, but peace is very fragile. The conflict must be resolved in an atmosphere of mutual respect, respect for the life of the other person and respect for property rights.” After Yeghoyan’s speech, one of the Azerbaijani delegates, Sultan Mammadov, stated that he did not want to have a long debate on what he had said, but insisted on what had been said before that Azerbaijan was a “multicultural country.” “Dozens of minorities live in Azerbaijan – Russians, Jews – I emphasize that about 30,000 Armenians live in Azerbaijan. There are Armenians among my friends who now live in Azerbaijan, and we make wonderful company, but there are no Azerbaijanis living in Armenia. These are facts.” As for the cultural heritage of Artsakh, Mammadov, who did not even use the name Artsakh during his speeches, claimed that several dozen mosques had been razed to the ground.
“We are not going to do anything with your rich cultural heritage. We have been calling on UNESCO to come and assess the situation for thirty years. Now we are waiting for the international community to give an independent assessment: we did not want a war, we do not want a war, and that is why we have been waiting for a peaceful solution to the conflict for thirty years. It is important for us to emphasize the fact of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders, which is important for the establishment of peace. I am convinced that there will be peace in the region. I call on my Armenian colleagues to refrain from insulting Azerbaijan. We consider ourselves guests here and thank you for your hospitality. We hope to maintain warm relations between the two countries.”
Luiza Sukiasyan
