Our people insist on the liberation of 8 villages, as in Karabakh
The Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, Alen Simonyan, has recently preferred to make political statements rather than deal with legislative work. Simonyan sometimes talks about the importance of removing the Russian border guards from the "Zvartnots" airport in Yerevan, and sometimes about the delimitation process with Azerbaijan. However, as we mentioned, these are not the tasks that he will deal with directly.
Another example of nonsense is the speaker of the parliament's statement that Azerbaijan "occupied" 31 villages (?) of Armenia. Simonyan's statement led to heated discussions in this direction in Armenia. With his statement, it is as if the judge gave a blessing to the other members of the team. Currently, the official position of the Armenian authorities is that Azerbaijan controls 225 square kilometers of the territory of Armenia "as a result of military operations" conducted in the 1990s and 2021-2022.
The recent increase in the number of statements made by Armenia in this direction forced our country to respond to them. According to the information received by "XQ" from the service of Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev, 7 meetings of the commissions established in Azerbaijan and Armenia on the delimitation of the state border have already been held.
It was noted that at the current stage, within the framework of the activity of the commissions, work is being done on the creation of the necessary regulatory and legal framework for conducting delimitation works: "Recently, in the Armenian media, false information originating from government sources about the fact that the lands belonging to 31 villages of Armenia are allegedly "under occupation" by Azerbaijan it spreads. It is also noted that the Republic of Azerbaijan, which does not acknowledge this, demands the liberation of its 4 villages under occupation. "The Azerbaijani side considers it important to note in this regard that the declaration that the lands belonging to 31 villages of Armenia are "occupied" before the delimitation of the state border is completely unfounded."
As for the 4 non-exclave villages of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia (Bağanis Ayrym, Ashagi Eskipara, Kheyrimli and Gizilhajili), it was stated that they undisputedly belong to Azerbaijan and should be released immediately. It was noted that within the framework of the delimitation process, the issue of liberating the 4 exclave villages of Azerbaijan under the occupation of Armenia (Yukhari Eskipara, Sofulu, Barkhudarlı and Karki) will be resolved.
It should be noted that although Azerbaijan liberated its occupied lands as a result of the 44-day Patriotic War in 2020 and local anti-terrorist measures in 2023, and our state sovereignty was established, the issue related to 8 villages is still waiting to be resolved. Those villages are actually under occupation. These are the (exclave) villages of Azerbaijan located in the territory of Armenia during the USSR. Note that an exclave is a non-sovereign region located far from the main territory of the country and surrounded by other states (one or more). Such territories are considered an exclave of the country to which they belong, and an enclave for a country to which it does not belong, but which is surrounded by its territory. The villages of Baganis Ayrym, Aşaghi Eskipara, Kheyrimli and Gizilhacılı of Gazakh region are not exclaves. They are villages adjacent to Gazakh district. The fact that they are under the control of Armenia today cannot be explained in any other way than occupation. The other 4 villages (Yukhari Eskipara, Sofulu, Barkhudarlı villages of Kazakh and Karki village of Sadarak district of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic) are exclave villages under the occupation of Armenia.
Official Baku raises the issue of the return of the occupied villages on all platforms and meetings. Our country calls the non-return of the villages a continuation of the occupation and it is clear that we insist on securing our sovereignty over those settlements. On October 7, 2023, during a telephone conversation with the President of the Council of the European Union, Charles Michel, President Ilham Aliyev said that 8 villages of Azerbaijan are still under the occupation of Armenia and emphasized the importance of liberating those villages from occupation.
On January 10, the head of state touched upon this issue again in an interview with local TV channels. The president once again called those villages occupied villages: "Our position is very fair and logical. Either a political methodology should be taken as a basis, or a chronology should be taken as a basis, or we should not base our work on any map at all. A commission was established. Expert groups should be created to activate the work of the commission. Let them go around those places and define that border. Because today our border is conditional.
As for the occupied villages, I think that our proposal is also very logical. As you know, there are enclave and non-enclave villages. Those villages that are not enclave villages, those four villages should be unconditionally returned to Azerbaijan. Those villages that are enclave villages - because an enclave village of Armenia is in the territory of Azerbaijan - a separate expert group should be created and discussed with regard to those villages. We believe that all enclaves should be returned. The roads leading to these enclaves should have facilities and the people living there should be accommodated in these enclaves. That is, our position consists of this. We cannot understand what is the position of Armenia..."
It should also be noted that at the meeting of the Milli Majlis held on March 5, MP Fazail Agamali commented on the issue of 8 villages. He said that Yerevan is trying to use them to arm itself by forming an alliance with France and Greece. Azerbaijan is fighting for its independence and sovereignty. We will go to the end. We will not surrender to any force. As long as Armenia is not heavily armed, we must carry out a military operation and unite our 8 occupied villages to our lands. The development of events is not pleasant at all. Addressing our compatriots from the south, I say that they should show their will to prevent weapons being brought to Armenia from different countries through Iran, as was the case during the Patriotic War. "Azerbaijan's policy is peaceful and based on human values."
As it can be seen, it is already heard from the mouths of more people in Azerbaijan that the return of 8 villages is necessary. The people of Azerbaijan are united in the issue of liberating 20 percent of the territory under occupation, and they are in a unanimous position in the issue of freeing their 8 villages from slavery.
Political scientist Yegana Hajiyeva, whose opinion we learned on the subject, told "XQ" that the idea of Azerbaijan keeping 31 villages of Armenia "under occupation" was thrown by A. Simonyan and other Armenian officials. According to him, the official Yerevan is currently trying to circulate this issue. At the same time, Nikol Pashinyan's government is trying to make international organizations refer to this idea: "The European Parliament is expected to hold hearings on Azerbaijan in the coming days. This is one of the ideas thrown in the middle in order to form reference sources for anti-Azerbaijani circles in those hearings, and it has no basis. On the other hand, these statements of Simonyan and others are so frivolous that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan did not even need to react. Because there is no need to react to it. There is no point in reacting to every fictitious and frivolous opinion of the Armenian side and turning them into a subject of discussion. The official Baku presented exactly such an approach. I think this is the most correct approach."
Y. Hajiyeva added that the Armenian side is avoiding the process of returning Azerbaijani villages: "Armenia is trying to avoid its obligations and responsibilities regarding 8 villages. He wants to dispute this in some way. Another goal of Yerevan is to give anti-Azerbaijani circles grounds that can be used against our country. On the other hand, next time it aims to distract the attention of the international community with such frivolous ideas, as well as to deceive."
According to political scientist Zaur Ibrahimli, it was stated in the information released about the results of the negotiations between the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia held in Munich on February 17, as well as the meetings of the foreign ministers of the two countries held in Berlin on February 28-29, that not only the articles of the peace agreement, In general, the open issues were discussed: "We know that in order to fully ensure the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, it is important that 8 villages return to the jurisdiction of our country. Those villages are within the borders of Azerbaijan recognized by the international community. At least four of the villages are not in exclave status and there are no difficulties or obstacles for Yerevan to return them.
Z.Ibrahimli also noted that if the Armenians return 4 villages to Azerbaijan unconditionally and quickly, it will be a significant contribution to the peace process: "At the same time, this step will serve to create trust between the parties. If the Armenians try to prolong the process, it will be an attempt to return to the meaningless negotiation process. I assume that Azerbaijan will not participate in such negotiations. On the other hand, such opinions have already been expressed in the Milli Majlis that the villages should be returned by military means. Azerbaijan has full right to it. "International law allows Azerbaijan to use force to return its villages under the jurisdiction of the state."
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