Ambassador: Armenia’s racist campaign didn’t end in 1994, it lasted for almost two more decades

Assertions that Armenia’s racist campaign ended by 1994 are unreliable, Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the Netherlands Rahman Mustafayev said during the second round of oral arguments of the Azerbaijani side in response to the preliminary objections of the opponent as part of the hearings on the application of ICERD (Azerbaijan v. Armenia) at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Report informs.

“As Azerbaijan has explained, Armenia’s campaign continued relentlessly for almost another two decades until the final liberation of the occupied territories in 2023.

Yesterday, the agent of Armenia labeled Azerbaijan’s comments with regard to the racist ideology which underpinned Armenia’s breaches of the third, as I quote, not the proper province of this faith. Such matters may cause Armenia discomfort, but they are absolutely relevant to these preliminary objections phase because they will assist the court's understanding of the singular nature and scope of Azerbaijan’s third complaint, the material jurisdiction over which has been questioned by Armenia.

"Yesterday, remarkably, the agent of Armenia repeated its charade that Armenia was never occupying power in Azerbaijan’s sovereign territories. He quoted selected from UN Security Council reservations, he misrepresented Jurisprudence Council to Armenia faithfully followed suit, alluding to so-called Nagorno Karabakh’s armed forces in an effort to convey that they were somehow separate from Armenian armed forces. All of this was a vain attempt to weigh the simple reality," the diplomat said.

“The agent of Armenia refused to acknowledge a misleading statement made by the Armenian Council on Monday, but her statement was clear and I quote, discrimination against an ethnic group which was on its that's Azerbaijan's own case, own not located in the relevant territory and never intended to return there.

"Never intended to return. I will not explain again why it's simply inconceivable that Azerbaijanis never intended to return to their homes in the occupied areas, and why all parties knew that such returns would happen. Armenia's agent seemed to say that his counsel may have misspoken and intended to say that Armenia didn't intend Azerbaijanis to return.

"First, he claims that, I quote, neither Armenia nor the local representatives in Nagorno Karabakh ever prevented the United Nations from accessing Nagorno Karabakh, as the court can see on the screen.

"In 2005, responding to the request of the Azerbaijani side to send a fact-finding mission to occupied areas to verify the state of Azerbaijani cultural heritage, UNESCO explained that it had been prevented from accessing the territories occupied by Armenia. I quote however, that the secretariat has been prevented from sending a mission to verify the state of cultural property in the area, as other specialized agencies of the United Nations have not been able to enter these territories since the occupation by Armenian military forces. Again, in disregard of the clear documentary evidence.”