President of Azerbaijan: In our proposal to Karabakh Armenians, we also covered their rights

“Azerbaijan is a multi-ethnic country, multi-confessional country. We have many ethnic groups in Azerbaijan. Some of these ethnic groups, the number of these ethnic groups, people who belong to them is much bigger than Armenian population in Karabakh. All of them live in peace, they enjoy all the rights and security. In our proposal to Karabakh Armenians, which was, by the way, published, we also covered their rights. Their right for their language, for their education, religion, municipal rights. They can elect their representatives through municipal elections and continue to live there. The decision to leave was their own decision, and according to information, which we now have access to, that was a deliberate act of former so-called “leaders” of so-called “nagorno-karabakh republic”. There was no need for them to leave, but when they decided to leave, we could not stop them,” President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Euronews channel, Report informs.

“We provided maximum comfort for them to leave in peace, unlike Azerbaijanis, who were either killed 30 years ago or deported, tortured, arrested, and some of them had to cross high mountains, and were just frozen to death in those mountains. All that was documented on route. All that was also documented when Armenians of Karabakh region entered Armenia. So, all was done in line with humanitarian standards. But again, coming back to the question, they can come back.

Of course, they need to register in the electronic portal, which we opened and which is available, that they want to come back, they want to take Azerbaijani citizenship. Several of them already applied for citizenship, and it is now in the process. Some Armenians decided to stay in Karabakh, and now they've been taken care of by our Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population and Migration Service, they are registered,” the Azerbaijani President noted.