A group of Deputies of the Azerbaijani Parliament has addressed a letter to Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeyhun Bayramov on the termination of two agreements with the US, nonagreement of two treaties, and suspension of USAID projects in Azerbaijan, APA reports.
"First of all, we would like to note that with the restoration of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our country under the leadership of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, the basis for long-term peace and stability in the region has been created. Having put an end to thirty years of occupation and injustice, Azerbaijan has secured not only its national interests, but also the supremacy of international law.
This situation creates an opportunity to more actively implement the contributions of our country to the solution of universal problems. Shortly after Azerbaijan regained its sovereignty on September 20, 2023, on December 9 of the same year, the unanimous support of the decision of Azerbaijan to host the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) was the international recognition of Azerbaijan by world states. it is proof of his great support for his view on peace and development issues.
Azerbaijan's ongoing preparation for COP29 at a high level is an indication of how serious it is to solving the fundamental issues of climate change that concern humanity as a whole.
We would like to note with regret that a number of circles took advantage of the fact that Azerbaijan will host the COP29 and decided to accept some issue to Azerbaijan. This is the appeal that a group of members of the US Senate and the House of Representatives sent to the Secretary of State of this country, Anthony Blinken, on October 3, 2024.
It should be made clear that we have no doubt that the appeal in question was organized by the State Department. As President Ilham Aliyev emphasized on October 4 in the city of Jabrayl, the State Department writes letters to themselves to threaten Azerbaijan.
This appeal, which contains racial discrimination against Azerbaijan, is full of slander, is against the spirit of dialogue, calls for the release of war criminals and the militarization of Armenia, is unacceptable, is against international law and shows that the United States is not interested in the smooth continuation of bilateral relations.
The authors of the appeal, which made allegations against Azerbaijan in the field of human rights and international humanitarian law on false grounds, were told that millions of civilians were killed, many people were tortured and punished without legal process during the wars waged by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world. we would like to remind. The United States, which thrives on human rights, has not joined the most important human rights conventions. It is the United States that has not allowed the UN Special Rapporteur against Torture to Guantánamo for many years.
The United States, which is the co-chair of the Minsk Group, has never realized its responsibility, and together with France, has tried to keep Azerbaijan's lands under occupation. Cultural heritage, mosques, and historical monuments of the Azerbaijani people were destroyed and insulted in the territories that were once occupied by the United States, and entire cities and villages were wiped out. The USA has never condemned these barbaric acts of Armenia.
These attacks, which began after the Patriotic War of 2020 and intensified last year, stem from the United States' refusal to accept the restoration of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Azerbaijan, religious and ethnic discrimination against the Azerbaijani people, and the intention to create a new conflict in the region. Why does the United States, which has invaded various countries of the world with false accusations, evaluate the operation carried out by Azerbaijan to liberate its territory from occupation and end separatism as "military aggression"? The congressmen, who are constantly talking about the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Armenia, have not even once spoken about the respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
Why do the congressmen accusing Azerbaijan of "ethnic cleansing" not react to the deportation of all Azerbaijanis from Armenia and the appeals of the West Azerbaijan Community to Antony Blinken?
Congressmen have descended to such a level that they use the Armenian author's article as "evidence" against Azerbaijan. Why do the congressmen who accuse Azerbaijan of not wanting to sign the peace treaty "forget" that the initiative of the peace treaty came from Azerbaijan and that its text was drawn up by Azerbaijan, and they still do not condemn the inclusion of the territorial claim against our country in the Constitution of Armenia?
What do congressmen mean by "unresolved territorial conflicts in Azerbaijan"? The Karabakh conflict has been resolved. The people of Azerbaijan, the state of Azerbaijan have resolved the Karabakh conflict, and the different opinions of those who live thousands of kilometers away from Azerbaijan do not change the reality. The people of Azerbaijan have returned forever to Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur, and the reality today is that the houses built for former IDPs in Jabrayl are Azerbaijanis returning to their ancestral lands.
Don't the congressmen know that the people they present as "political leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh" are war criminals, executioners of Khojaly, arms brokers, financial fraudsters, and oligarchs involved in all kinds of dirty deeds?! Why does the US defend those who took pride in committing the Khojaly genocide, give visas to separatists, and embrace them?! Will those calling for the release of these criminals raise their voice about the disappearance of 4,000 Azerbaijanis whose fate has been unknown for more than 30 years?!
Armenia, which the congressmen consider a "democratic" country, is a country that occupied the territory of another country for 30 years, committed ethnic cleansing, suffered from the disease of national exceptionalism, and even now it has not tried the military criminals, but made them heroes.
Let us remind once again that the Azerbaijani side has always shown patience and restraint in order to advance bilateral relations, and has taken the line of continuing and developing partnership between the two countries on matters of mutual interest. Azerbaijan has actively participated in cooperation on international security issues that are of greater interest to the United States, has contributed to NATO operations at the request of the United States, and participated in those operations with dignity. In short, the Azerbaijani side behaved responsibly and constructively in order to establish and develop friendly relations with the United States in accordance with the interests of the peoples of the two countries and the goals and principles of the UN Charter.
It should be noted with regret that in exchange for Azerbaijan's responsible and restrained behavior, the United States has behaved non-constructively since the first day we restored our independence. The series of anti-Azerbaijani measures that began with the adoption of the infamous 907th amendment has not been interrupted. This is the same USA that imposed sanctions against Azerbaijan, not Armenia, after the Khojaly genocide and the occupation of Shusha and Lachin. In the last 30 years, the USA has turned a blind eye to the calamities committed by Armenia against the people of Azerbaijan, the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, the expulsion of more than a million Azerbaijanis from the territory of Armenia and the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, the massive destruction of the cultural heritage of Azerbaijan, the destruction of hundreds of cities and villages of Azerbaijan, and the planting of millions of mines in our territories. The US actually encouraged Armenia to continue its occupation and ethnic cleansing.
After Azerbaijan resolved the conflict by liberating its territories from the occupation of Armenia, the United States took action to rekindle the conflict. The United States and a number of other countries, on its initiative, allocated a large amount of financial aid to Armenia, thanks to which Armenia's rearmament was ensured and this country was emboldened to take a non-constructive position in the peace negotiations. At the meeting of the USA, the European Union and Armenia held in Brussels on April 5, 2024, a new war task was actually given to Armenia. With this, the US brings geopolitical competition to the South Caucasus and creates dividing lines in the region.
In this context, the appeal of the members of the US Congress to the Secretary of State Antony Blinken shows that this country is not interested in the smooth continuation of bilateral relations.
While noting the determination of the Azerbaijani side to continue bilateral relations, we would like to emphasize that this is not possible with the efforts of only one side. Based on the principle of reciprocity and the goal of returning bilateral relations to a logical level, we believe that the time has come to respond to the mentioned steps of the US side. We remind the congressmen who called on the State Department to put pressure on Azerbaijan and its President, that especially the events after 2020 have shown once again that Azerbaijan has never succumbed to any pressure, slander, and no slander, no threats, even in the slightest against its will. cannot affect. On the contrary, with these actions, the USA is losing its already sinking reputation in the Azerbaijani society. This letter of ours also expresses the anger of the Azerbaijani people towards the double standards and false values of the United States. Such unfair, ridiculous accusations and threats against the strongest state of the region also show the inconsistency of the congressmen who signed the letter.
In this regard, we ask you to take the following steps to review the relations between Azerbaijan and the United States:
• The agreements in force between Azerbaijan and the United States, in particular, the Joint Statement "On future military and defense relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the United States" signed in 1997 and the "Equipment transfer between the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Defense of the United States of America" signed in 2013 Termination of the Agreement on purchase and mutual service;
• Immediate termination of negotiations on the agreement of new contracts and the extension of existing contracts;
• Suspension of all projects implemented by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and US non-governmental organizations in Azerbaijan and disallowing new projects, as well as termination of USAID's activities in our country."
