For the last three years, since the end of the 44-Day War, Azerbaijan has on numerous occasions stated its readiness to provide safety, security, and all the rights under Azerbaijani legislation and constitution to all ethnicities, including Armenians, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizada told The Insider, Report informs.
"We have also stated that Azerbaijan considers ethnic Armenians living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan as part of Azerbaijani society and is always ready to protect their rights and security in line with the national legislation," he added.
"Over the last two days, we carried out counter-terrorist measures against the illegal Armenian armed forces that had remained stationed in Azerbaijan in violation of the trilateral statement of November 10th, 2020, after the end of the war, which enshrines in Article 4 that the Armenian armed forces should withdraw in parallel with the deployment of the Russian peacekeeping forces, but which has not been fulfilled. The last few days saw military provocations and actions against Azerbaijani troops and civilians that claimed six lives: four military personnel and two civilians, killed as a result of Armenian troops’ sabotage and reconnaissance operation, which led to military escalation.
"Azerbaijan has used very high-precision weapons for this operation and these measures. Almost no civilian facilities were hit. We do understand the history between our nations. But when we look back at the large-scale 44-Day War, we can see that civilian casualties from the Azerbaijani side were much higher than the civilian casualties of the Armenian side. That means that Azerbaijan has never targeted the civilian population," Hajizada said.