Azerbaijani ambassador: Hostile policy towards its neighbors turned Armenia into failed state

"During the 30 years of independence, Armenia has not been able to become an independent country. It is a failed state, and the main reason for this is the hostile policy towards its neighbors," reads the letter of the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Italy, Mammad Ahmadzade, published in the Italian newspaper il Sussidario.

He responded to the slanderous interview of the ambassador of Armenia in Italy with solid arguments.

The letter of the Azerbaijani ambassador begins with these thoughts: "I would be very surprised if the Armenian ambassador's interview was not full of complaints, accusations, lies, and distortions, because he, as a habit of himself and the Armenian side in general, thinks that the whole world should blindly believe what they say and support Armenia in every situation, even when they and their political leaders are the cause of their problems. This short period of several years seemed not enough for the Armenian ambassador working in his first diplomatic post abroad to adapt his activity and speaking style to diplomatic etiquette. However, this time the ambassador crossed the limits and allowed himself to harshly criticize the international community, European institutions, and the independent press, accusing them of not supporting his country's military attacks against Azerbaijan. But in fact, it is impossible to expect different behavior from the representative of a country that kept Azerbaijani lands under military occupation for three decades, subjected one million Azerbaijanis to ethnic cleansing, and destroyed all the occupied territories."

Continuing his thoughts, the Azerbaijani diplomat says: "It seems that it is not right for an ambassador who only in his own imagination considers himself to be a representative of a "democratic" country to show a minimum level of tolerance to opinions other than his own. As many independent analysts have emphasized, the tales of "democracy in Armenia" told by the ambassador are ridiculous when the prime minister usurped all the power in Armenia amid a disastrous situation where citizens are constantly fleeing to other countries due to political instability and deep economic and social problems. I just want to remind my colleague of the episode about the former president of Armenia. The former president, who fled the country just a few weeks after that ambassador arranged for him a visit to Italy, resigned, citing that he did not have enough powers to carry out his duties, as the prime minister usurped those powers. During the 30 years of independence, Armenia has not been able to become an independent country. It is a failed state, and the main reason for this is the hostile policy towards its neighbors."

Ahmadzade said that the Armenian ambassador's criticisms of Azerbaijan are based on nothing but envy and that he couldn't digest the significant successes achieved by Azerbaijan as a result of the far-sighted policy of President Ilham Aliyev. Speaking about those successes in the political, economic, and social fields achieved by Azerbaijan, the diplomat noted that Azerbaijan has become the leading state of the region, strengthened its position in the international world, and strategic projects implemented by Azerbaijan have changed the geopolitical landscape of the entire region, and the Azerbaijani lands were liberated from painful and atrocious military occupation. Referring to President Ilham Aliyev's speech at the International Cernobbio Forum, he said that the main issue for Azerbaijan as an independent country is to protect itself from external factors because the country is already integrated internally, and there is an internal unity to develop Azerbaijan.

Regarding the claims of the Armenian ambassador that the Karabakh issue is a territorial problem for Azerbaijan and a problem related to the people living there for the Armenian side, the Azerbaijani diplomat said: "There is no longer a problem called the Karabakh issue because Azerbaijan has solved this problem based on UN resolutions. Karabakh and all other territories freed from the occupation are historical territories of Azerbaijan. Liberation of these territories was also a moral issue for us because these territories, where Armenia expelled about 800,000 Azerbaijanis, have been waiting for 30 years for Azerbaijanis to return to visit the graves of their ancestors and live there again. These are the territories where Armenia tried to erase all traces of the Azerbaijani people during the occupation and where important examples of the historical and cultural heritage of Azerbaijan, including the cultural capital of our country, Shusha, are located. The unsuccessful reasoning of the Armenian ambassador, which he called a "security buffer", is nothing more than his country's recognition of long-term military aggression against Azerbaijan. The unsuccessful reasoning of the Armenian ambassador, which he called a "security buffer", is nothing more than admitting long-term military aggression against Azerbaijan by his country."

The Azerbaijani diplomat continued his letter with these thoughts: "The remarks of the Armenian ambassador on the energy issue are another manifestation of the inferiority complex, and this does not need a special explanation. I would simply like to note that the energy issue has nothing to do with the issue between Armenia and Azerbaijan. My country has been a reliable partner of Europe as a supplier of hydrocarbons for a long time, and this has been the case for many years when Armenia occupied our territories, during which no one forced it to withdraw its armed forces from our territories."

Commenting on the Armenian ambassador's distorted presentation of what happened along the state border in recent days, the Azerbaijani diplomat said: "Regarding the ambassador's fantasies about the events taking place these days, I would like to note that the root of what is happening is the fact that Azerbaijan is the victim of another large-scale attack by Armenia on the state border of the two countries. The Armed Forces of Azerbaijan resolutely repelled the Armenian provocation. This provocation is a severe blow to the normalization process between the two countries. The entire responsibility for this lies with the military and political leadership of Armenia, which continues to make territorial claims against my country even after the signing of the 2020 Tripartite Statement and causes the death of civilians by placing landmines in the territories of Azerbaijan. It is no coincidence that Armenia's latest provocations took place two weeks after the Brussels meeting, where it was agreed to start negotiations for the normalization of relations between the two countries. It is no accident that Armenia's purpose in causing these provocations was to find an excuse to avoid peace talks and involve third parties in the issue and expand the geography of the tension."

Ahmadzade stressed that Azerbaijan, which has been suffering from military aggression for almost 30 years, and which today invests heavily in major reconstruction works in the liberated territories, wants peace and has come up with a peace plan: "We have repeatedly invited the other side to sign a peace treaty based on five basic principles, including mutual recognition of sovereignty and territorial integrity, inviolability of international borders, delimitation and demarcation of state borders, and opening of transport and communications. But Armenia is slowing down the normalization process, continuing its revanchist claims, and at the same time, acting as a victim again, it is trying to trap the international community with its disinformation."

In his letter, the Azerbaijani diplomat expressed his gratitude to the Italian mass media, which took an objective position regarding the recent events and presented the facts as they were, as well as to the representatives of Italian political circles who did not believe in Armenian propaganda, maintained objectivity in their position and invited Azerbaijan and Armenia to negotiations for signing the peace treaty.

The Azerbaijani diplomat finished his letter with the following remarks addressed to the Armenian ambassador: "I invite my colleague to be more professional in his future interviews, not to bore the Italian public with misinformation, and to focus on the agenda of peace between our countries, not war-mongering."