Initiative Group of Milli Majlis: Ter-Petrosyan's statement proves Armenia's systematic crimes against Azerbaijan

The Initiative Group of the Milli Majlis on the Return to Western Azerbaijan has issued a statement in response to the recently released video of a speech by Armenia's ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosyan.

According to Report, the group emphasized that the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia was initiated by the Armenian side in 1987, causing unprecedented suffering to the Azerbaijani people.

As a result of Armenia's aggressive policy and deliberately planned ethnic cleansing, more than a million Azerbaijanis were expelled from their native lands, according to the statement.

"These crimes are rooted in racism deeply embedded in Armenia's political environment. In this country, racism has been institutionalized as state policy. They carried out total and systematic ethnic cleansing both in their territory and in Azerbaijani lands that they held under occupation for thirty years. Furthermore, Armenia completely destroyed Azerbaijan's cultural heritage in these territories, plundered natural resources, public and private property of Azerbaijan, and deliberately contaminated Azerbaijani territories with large numbers of mines," the statement says.

It further emphasizes that only an ideology based on racial hatred, radical nationalism, and violent extremism could lead to such large-scale and ruthless crimes. Recently released video footage of Ter-Petrosyan's speech from July 23, 1993, serves as further confirmation. In this speech, he described the ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis from Armenia and occupied territories as a "historic achievement."

"Ter-Petrosyan's statement, who was president at the time, unequivocally proves that Armenia, as a state, bears responsibility for all these crimes, and that all these crimes were systematic and organized in nature. It is noteworthy that Armenia continues to adhere to this policy, regardless of who was in power," the statement says.

The initiative group called on the international community to condemn systematic racism and ethnic cleansing policies conducted by Armenia at the state level.