“We are waiting for a clear statement from the Armenian authorities about how the inhabitants of Western Azerbaijan expelled from the current territory of Armenia or their descendants can return to their historical lands, visit or live in those territories. Especially given that according to our reliable information, 90 percent of the villages where Azerbaijanis lived are now empty,” he told a “media forum” held in the Nagorno-Karabakh town of Shusha (Shushi) over the weekend.
Aliyev has long described Yerevan and other parts of Armenia as “historical Azerbaijani lands.” He has pledged to ensure the eventual repatriation of ethnic Azerbaijanis who lived there in Soviet times. Aliyev and other Azerbaijani officials have said nothing about the repatriation of at least 200,000 ethnic Armenians who lived in Baku and other parts of Soviet Azerbaijan, excluding Karabakh, until 1988.
Karabakh’s entire ethnic Armenian population was displaced less than a year ago as a result of an Azerbaijani military offensive that restored Baku’s control over the region. Aliyev again claimed on Saturday that the Karabakh Armenians were not forced to flee their homes.
He voiced his latest demand to Yerevan amid ongoing discussions of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. The Azerbaijani leader again made the signing of the treaty conditional of a change of Armenia’s constitution which he says contains territorial claims to Azerbaijan.
Aliyev reaffirmed this condition in late April after forcing Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to hand over four disputed border areas to Azerbaijan. Armenian opposition leaders strongly condemned that unilateral concession, saying that Pashinian’s appeasement policy will only encourage Baku to make other demands to the Armenian side, rather than bring peace.
Under the terms of the controversial land transfer announced in April, the two sides were due to adopt by July 1 joint “regulations” for the delimitation of the other sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Pashinian and his political allies claimed at the time that this will lay the groundwork for Azerbaijan’s recognition of Armenia’s territorial integrity.
However, no such regulations have been agreed upon so far. Some Pashinian allies have echoed opposition claims that Baku remains reluctant to recognize Armenia’s borders and hopes to clinch even more concessions from Yerevan.