Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pledged guarantees to the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and urged them to become part of Azerbaijani society
BAKU (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd August, 2023) Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pledged guarantees to the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh and urged them to become part of Azerbaijani society.
"As for Armenians in Karabakh, they should not follow their so-called leaders. These leaders were lying to them all the time. Karabakh Armenians should understand that being part of Azerbaijani society, with security guarantees, we understand it, with their rights, including educational, cultural, religious, municipal rights, they will leave normal life. And they will also stop to be hostage of manipulation. We offer them normal life, and I think if they listen to me they should understand. And they know that I mean what I say," Aliyev told Euronews.
At the end of July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, following talks with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts, reported that Yerevan had an understanding of the need to convince the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh of the importance of talks with Baku, and Azerbaijan, in turn, was ready to provide guarantees of rights to Karabakh Armenians on a reciprocal basis.
At the same time, Aliyev said July 24 that the rights and security of the Armenians of Karabakh would be ensured on the basis of the Azerbaijani constitution, and before that, back in April, he said Armenians living in Karabakh should accept Azerbaijani citizenship or look for another place of residence.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over disputed Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-majority mountainous region wedged in between the two nations where both have a military presence. The decades-long conflict reignited in the fall of 2020, marking the worst escalation since the 1990s. Hostilities ended in a Russia-brokered ceasefire and the deployment of Russian peacekeepers to the region.
In 2022, Yerevan and Baku, with mediation by Russia, the United States and the European Union, began discussing a future peace treaty. In May 2023, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Yerevan was ready to recognize Azerbaijan's 86,600-square-kilometer (33,430-square-mile) territorial integrity, which includes Nagorno-Karabakh. If Armenia does not change its position, Baku and Yerevan could sign a peace treaty in the near future, Aliyev said.
