Azerbaijani ambassador responds to publication in "The Irish Times"

Baku. 15 July. REPORT.AZ/ Azerbaijani Ambassador to the UK, Tahir Tagizade responded to the newspaper "The Irish Times" on the publication of the article in this edition entitled "Lonely tale of Nagorno Karabakh, a self-proclaimed republic."

Report informs referring to the website of the newspaper, the ambassador said in his letter that, the regime in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan has been created as a result of the violation of internationally recognised sovereignty of Azerbaijan and annexation of nearly a fifth of its lands.

In a letter, the diplomat also stressed that, The sole reason why 95 per cent of the region’s population is ethnic Armenian is because ethnic Azerbaijanis, the indigenous population of the region, have been expelled from their homes and continue to suffer from continuing Armenian aggression and have been resettled as internally displaced people in other regions of Azerbaijan.

"Nagorno Karabakh is not claimed by Azerbaijan; historically it has always been part of Azerbaijan and is an internationally recognised territory of Azerbaijan", the ambassador writes, adding that, attempts at distorting reality will not change the facts on the ground. It would be wrong to somehow attribute the situation to religion as there is no basis to support this claim. It is purely a territorial conflict, resulting from illegal claims of one nation to another nation’s sovereignty, and unless Armenian armed forces leave the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, a sustainable peace will not come to the region.

"Azerbaijan’s willingness to compromise does not include infringement of its basic rights as a nation", concluded the Ambassador.