Ilham Aliyev: "Azerbaijan's victory became a triumph of international law, justice and values of the Non-Aligned Movement"

This year the world celebrates the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement, which has become the second largest political institution after the UN General Assembly. At the heart of the Non-Aligned Movement is the desire for peace and the strengthening of global solidarity, therefore, in recent years, the role of the Movement in the face of global difficulties has increased even more.

The historical Bandung principles, which encourage respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, as well as non-interference in the internal affairs of countries and other principles, are fully consistent with the priorities of Azerbaijan's foreign policy. President Ilham Aliyev said this today, opening an online conference of the Foreign Ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Azerbaijan became a member of the Non-Aligned Movement 10 years ago, gained authority there and in 2016, by a unanimous decision of all member states, Baku was entrusted with the chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement in 2019-2022. In October 2019, Azerbaijan organized the XVIII Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Baku. Then Ilham Aliyev promised to take practical steps to uphold the legitimate interests of the countries of the Movement, to protect justice and international law. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Baku, Azerbaijan launched a number of international initiatives to mobilize global efforts against the pandemic, in particular, a database was created covering the basic humanitarian and medical needs of the Movement's member countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) is using this database in the fight against the pandemic as a resource for identifying the needs of the NAM member countries.

Azerbaijan provided humanitarian and financial assistance to more than 30 countries in the fight against the pandemic, made a voluntary financial contribution to WHO in the amount of $ 10 million, half of which was intended for the member states of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Baku also condemned the behavior of some countries that have purchased vaccines in a volume that exceeds their needs. To date, more than 82% of the vaccines available in the world have been purchased by wealthy nations, with only 0.9% of vaccines in low-income countries. Such an attitude prevents developing, especially underdeveloped countries from protecting their populations. On behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, Azerbaijan put forward a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council to ensure equal and universal access for all countries to vaccines, and in March the resolution was unanimously adopted. According to Ilham Aliyev, the Movement should take coordinated and targeted steps for the period after COVID-19. It may be useful to hold a high-level meeting of the member states of the Non-Aligned Movement to exchange views and determine a position on the recovery period after the pandemic, as well as the creation of a UN High-level Panel on global recovery after the coronavirus.

In his speech, Ilham Aliyev also touched upon the liberation of his territories from the Armenian occupation, which lasted almost 30 years. During this period, Armenia carried out ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis, more than a million of whom became internally displaced persons. In February 1992, Armenia committed the Khojaly genocide, hundreds of civilians were killed, including 106 women and 63 children. The Khojaly genocide is recognized by 13 countries.

In 1993, the UN Security Council adopted four resolutions demanding the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Several influential international organizations, including the Non-Aligned Movement, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the OSCE, have also adopted relevant decrees and resolutions. However, Armenia ignored the demands of leading international organizations, since its only goal was to maintain the status quo and consolidate the occupation, the President of Azerbaijan said.

In his words, in recent years, Armenia has deliberately violated the negotiation process, threatened Azerbaijan with a new war for new territories. In 2020, Armenia carried out three military provocations on the state border and the former line of contact, as a result of which military personnel and civilians were killed.

In September last year, Armenia launched a large-scale military offensive against Azerbaijan. In response to this aggression, the Azerbaijani army launched a counter-offensive operation and liberated most of the occupied territories.

After being defeated in the 44-day war, Armenia signed an act of surrender on November 10, 2020 and was forced to withdraw its troops from the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan, which itself ensured the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions. Thus, Azerbaijan put an end to the 30-year-old conflict, restored its territorial integrity and historical justice by military-political means. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has remained in history, the President of Azerbaijan said.

He called this victory a triumph of international law, justice and values ​​of the Non-Aligned Movement, recalling that the countries of the Movement emphasized in the final document of the Baku summit the inadmissibility of the violent seizure of territories and confirmed that no state recognizes the legality of the situation resulting from the occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan. In July 2020, the Non-Aligned Movement adopted a communiqué in connection with the provocation committed by the Armenian armed forces on the state border. In October 2020, a statement was adopted as part of an online meeting held at the ministerial level. In both documents, the countries of the Non-Aligned Movement supported Azerbaijan's position and expressed solidarity in its efforts to restore its territorial integrity.

"Here I want to emphasize a specific event that took place during the Patriotic War of Azerbaijan: several members of the UN Security Council, not taking into account the UN Security Council resolutions adopted in 1993, tried to adopt a biased resolution. However, during the discussions in the Security Council, seven members of the Non-Aligned Movement, who supported the position Azerbaijan insisted on adding a reference to the aforementioned Security Council resolutions to the text under discussion. Such a decisive position of the Non-Aligned Movement countries demonstrated their adherence to the Bandung principles and values ​​of the Movement. We perceive this position as a gesture of historical friendship in our bilateral relations, "Ilham Aliyev said.

He recalled that during the occupation, Armenia destroyed cities and villages, all cultural and religious monuments in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, even cemeteries were wiped off the face of the earth. “The goal of Armenia was to erase the trail of Azerbaijanis who lived in these territories for centuries. The city of Agdam was destroyed to such an extent that it is called“ Hiroshima of the Caucasus. ”After the liberation of the city of Fizuli from the occupation, not a single building remained there to raise the flag Azerbaijan. All of them were destroyed by Armenia, "the President of Azerbaijan said.

According to him, trips of foreign diplomats and journalists to the liberated territories are now regularly organized: "They have witnessed the atrocities committed by Armenia. International media have documented and highlighted the facts of deliberate destruction and desecration of the cultural and religious heritage of the Azerbaijani people, destruction of cities and villages."

But today Azerbaijan has already started reconstruction work in the liberated territories. Modern urban planning is carried out there. The liberated territories will become a green energy zone. "Azerbaijan, having demonstrated a unique experience of transformation, will turn a destroyed territory four times larger than the territory of Luxembourg into a space of well-being with high living standards," Ilham Aliyev promised, stating that the priority of his country is the dignified and safe return of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons to their families. the edges.

Numerous mines laid by Armenia remain the main difficulty in this process. After November 10, 2020, as a result of a mine explosion, about 30 Azerbaijani citizens were killed, more than 100 people were injured. Mines delay the process of reconstruction in the liberated territories and the return of internally displaced persons to their homes.

Demining such vast areas requires significant time and resources. Ilham Aliyev noted that Armenia evades providing maps of minefields and called on the international community to force Yerevan to hand over mining maps of all liberated territories to Azerbaijan.