Saturday, December 9 2023 15:10

ArmInfo."If they want to reflect the issue of Armenian minority in Azerbaijan, then, let us reflect the issue of Azerbaijani minority in Armenia. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated this in an interview to Euronews, noting that "there were much more Azerbaijanis in Armenia than Armenians in Azerbaijan - almost 300,000."

"So, our position was that it must be reciprocal," Aliyev noted.

"Either we reflect these two issues of national minorities, their  rights and security, including the right to return not only Armenians  to return to Azerbaijan, but Azerbaijanis to return to Armenia." The  fact is just it must be reciprocal, or we do not comment in our peace  agreement about this issue. So, until now, we did not get from  Armenia any clear understanding on that. So, if Armenia agrees to  have either the same language for both national minorities or not to  reflect it at all, then the peace is reachable, because this was a  main obstacle for Armenia, when they were negotiating with us,"  Aliyev emphasized.    After Azerbaijan's large-scale military aggression against  Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19 of this year, which was preceded by  a 9-month total blockade, about 110 thousand Artsakh citizens were  forcibly moved to Armenia.

However, in total, as a result of Azerbaijani aggression, starting  from the 44-day Artsakh war in 2020, 150 thousand Artsakh residents  were left homeless. And 30 years ago, during the beginning of the  Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which Aliyev does not talk about, after  the Sumgait pogrom and murders, about 250 thousand Armenians left  Baku alone, about 100 thousand fled from Kirovabad (Ganja). The total  number of Armenians forcibly expelled from Azerbaijan is estimated at  400 thousand or more thousand Armenians.