Alekberli calls for return of “Western Azerbaijanis”

PanARMENIAN.Net - Aziz Alekberli, chairman of the board of the “Western Azerbaijan Community,” stated during a meeting with journalists at the Third “Return to Western Azerbaijan” Conference-Festival in Ordubad that Armenia “should create conditions for the safe return of Western Azerbaijanis,” Minval.az reported.

According to Alekberli, the return of “Western Azerbaijanis” to what he described as their “ancestral lands” is consistent with fundamental human rights and the principles of international law.

He stressed that “the new realities that have emerged in the region demonstrate the inevitability of the return of Western Azerbaijanis to their native lands.”

Alekberli added that “Armenia must accept this reality and ensure conditions for the safe, dignified and peaceful return of Western Azerbaijanis.”

On June 17, during a question-and-answer session with the government in the National Assembly, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that the issue of 300,000 Azerbaijanis returning is “a fake, invented and fabricated topic,” adding that “such a thing has not existed, does not exist and will not exist.”

During the election campaign, Samvel Karapetyan, leader of the Strong Armenia alliance, and other representatives of the alliance repeatedly claimed that “if the current Armenian authorities are re-elected, 300,000 Azerbaijanis will come to live in Armenia.” They also referred to the conference held in Nakhichevan on June 18 under the title “Western Azerbaijan.