YEREVAN—Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has reiterated his demands on Armenia, calling for the return and reintegration of around 300,000 Azerbaijanis who he says were displaced from Armenia in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Aliyev says that these individuals, who he described as having been “deported,” have formally appealed to the Armenian government to allow their return to their “historical lands.”
“We have not received a reply from the Armenian leadership on how they envision the process of reintegrating Azerbaijanis into their historical lands,” Aliyev stated in an interview with Russian media on December 18. The announcement came amid ongoing treaty negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which have seen some progress but remain mired in unresolved issues.
Aliyev added that two major points remain unresolved in the draft peace treaty between the two countries. According to Aliyev, Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed on 15 out of the treaty’s 17 articles, but Azerbaijan’s demands to mutually renounce lawsuits in international courts and remove third-party forces deployed along the border remain unfulfilled.
In particular, Aliyev says that Armenia must recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and refrain from involving third-party forces, including representatives from NATO member states, along the shared border. These demands come after Armenia’s Constitutional Court clarified that its constitution does not contain any territorial claims against Azerbaijan, a point Aliyev has repeatedly contested.
Another of Aliyev’s significant demands is the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group, which was established to mediate the Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Aliyev questioned the continued relevance of the group, stating that Armenia’s recognition of Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan should render its role obsolete.
“The Minsk Group has long ceased to be functional, and Armenia’s reluctance to join us in appealing for its dissolution demonstrates that Armenian revanchism is a serious threat,” Aliyev said.
Aliyev also turned his attention to France and the European Union, sharply criticizing their involvement in the region. He accused France, in particular, of supplying Armenia with offensive and lethal weapons, which he says pose a practical threat to Azerbaijan. “Those supplying arms to Armenia should be aware that they will bear direct responsibility for any future developments. Naturally, any official territorial claims against us must cease,” Aliyev said.
In a similar vein, Aliyev criticized the EU’s civilian monitoring mission on the Armenian side of the border, arguing that its expansion beyond the initial two-month agreement was done without Baku’s consent. He suggested that the mission has become a permanent fixture, with personnel from NATO member states now involved. Aliyev questioned the mission’s legitimacy and its alignment with Armenian sovereignty.
Amid diplomatic tensions, Azerbaijan has approved a dramatic increase in its military budget, with defense and national security expenditures rising by approximately 2 billion AZN (around $1.4 billion USD). This surge in military spending comes as Azerbaijan continues to import weapons from various countries, including Serbia, Bulgaria and Israel. Journalist Davit Galstyan has reported an uptick in arms shipments, including flights from Serbian and Bulgarian hubs, along with continued deliveries from Israel.
Azerbaijan has also increased its purchase of arms from Russia and other sources, signaling preparations for potential future conflicts. “Yerevan will not be able to withstand an arms race with Baku,” Aliyev said. “If they plan another provocation against us, no one will help them.”
Political technologist Tigran Kocharyan has expressed concerns over Azerbaijan’s increasing military readiness and budget expansion, suggesting that Azerbaijan is not interested in peace. In an interview with Channel 5 on December 18, Kocharyan argued that Azerbaijan is determined to force Armenia into capitulation, both diplomatically and militarily.
He criticized Armenia’s leadership, which he said behaves as if the country were “on the side of Fiji or Vanuatu,” rather than facing immediate threats to its territorial integrity. Kocharyan warned that should Azerbaijan or Turkey gain control over the so-called “Zangezur Corridor,” an extraterritorial corridor through southern Armenia, an attack on Iran could follow within hours.
Further complicating the situation, Aliyev suggested during his interview that Armenia is on the verge of withdrawing from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a military alliance led by Russia. He claimed that Armenia had already de facto withdrawn from the organization but was waiting for a “green light” from the U.S. State Department before making the move official.
Meanwhile, in Armenia, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan highlighted the continuing threats to Armenia’s sovereignty. Speaking at the 5th Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide in Yerevan, Mirzoyan noted that the international community had failed to prevent the atrocities of 2020 and expressed concerns over the ongoing risk of further violence.
“Regrettably, the international community tends to pay more attention and talk about genocides and other mass atrocities only after they have already happened and become established facts. We witnessed this in our region not only over 110 years ago in [the] case of the Armenian Genocide but also literally last year, when it seemed that the world could clearly see enough risk factors that could lead to irreversible consequences,” Mirzoyan said.
Hoory Minoyan
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Azerbaijan wants Armenia isolated for the kill. Russia wants Armenia isolated so it and only it can act as it’s saviour, but failing to. Armenia has a right to have observers from other countries it’s not for Azerbaijan or anyone else to say so. The Minsk group is moribund due to the antagonism of partners between USA and France against Russia. Armenia has every right to seek weapons from countries willing to supply it with them within the regulations of international law and protocols it’s not for Azerbaijan to veto what Armenia may procure .
As long as Nicol is in charge Aliyev’s demand will never end.
This Azerbaijani clown seems to be detached from reality. He is contradicting himself in everything he says but he gets away with his nonsense because we unfortunately, at least for now, don’t have any real leaders to put him in his place.
1. He wants Armenia to recognize his artificial gas station’s “territorial integrity” but he won’t do the same in return. But this is a ploy to legitimize the ethnic-cleansing in Artsakh and close the case on Artsakh Armenians once and for all.
2. He wants Armenia to refrain from involving third-party forces, including representatives from NATO member states, along the shared border when he has another NATO member state, terrorist Turkey, in Armenia’s backyard fighting his fight. What he really wants is to have the ability to make provocations and false accusations against Armenia as an excuse to take militarily this and that having strategic and military significance without being caught by these third-party observers as he did in the past.
He is demanding the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group as a means to put the proverbial last nail on Artsakh’s coffin while OSCE considers the Artsakh an open and unresolved case. This makes his false “bravado” even more questionable by his own politically ignorant gullible Azerbaijani sheep because they know without terrorist Turkey, not to mention our unpatriotic traitorous sorry excuse for a leader, none of this could have been possible.
3. Hilariously while acting as a modern “Napoleon” he attacks France and the European Union, as well as others such as India, for arming Armenia while increasing his gas station’s military budget year after year and buying much deadlier weapons from hypocritical and morally-bankrupt Israel, terrorist Turkey and some of our so-called allies! What is this charlatan afraid of? He figures terrorist Turkey’s job in the region, at least for now, is all done and with Turkey now heavily involved in Syria and Iraq that they won’t be able to come to his aid when an Armenian patriot armed to the teeth comes to power soon. He is having a flashback and reliving his late father’s humiliating defeat right in front of his eyes at the hands of a caliber of Armenian leaders who brought his KGB father to his knees.
This pseudo-Turkish Azerbaijani clown, the draft-dodging chicken-hawk khan of Baku, is like an open book. He does not want peace for as long as he has terrorist Turkish backing and Armenia has a sheep for a leader. A true peace is a give and take but he only wants to take from Armenia because he has found a window of opportunity to exploit. He wants to demand and to take all that he can because our sheepish leader won’t stand up to him. Pashinyan is more concerned about saving his own skin at this point and he could care less about giving up this and that because the word patriotism does not exist in his vocabulary. There is not an ounce of Armenian pride in him!
P.S. The Armenian foreign minister complaining about the so-called “international community” for not preventing what occurred recently is like asking a fox to watch over the hen house! It was the very same community that enabled our enemies to do what they did. They are heavily invested in this terrorist Azerbaijani cesspool that supplies oil & gas to them, not to mention now selling sanctioned Russian oil & gas to them as well, and rest-assured they will never lift a finger to do anything. Somebody should tell Mirzoyan that it is the responsibility of his dysfunctional government to protect Armenia and not that of some unscrupulous double-talking foreigners whose interests lie with our enemies and not with us. He should stop whining and always look for outsiders to come to our aid instead of creating a strong army and be self-reliant.
You said the magic word; “strong army.” We are getting the arms,but do we have a capable and patriotic army?
I have no doubt we have a very patriotic army but the real problem is their commander-in-chief, sheep-in-chief or traitor-in-chief to be exact, and that is the incompetent, dysfunctional, delusional and unpatriotic Pashinyan. A failed journalist turned politician with no military experience who never served in the army. Even worse, are his politically ignorant followers who were lied to and cheated into voting him into office as a result of which we have what we have today. Imagine voting into office an inexperienced charlatan to lead a country in a state of war, let alone one in a state of war for the last thirty years, and be faced with two-headed Turkish and pseudo-Turkish Azerbaijani snakes and all of this for wanting to get rid of leaders under whose leaderships not only the enemy was defeated in utmost humiliating fashion but that an enemy that cried for thirty years without even being able to put a dent on the Armenian resolve. It was more important, for selfish personal and artificial gains, to Pashinyan’s voters to get rid of patriotic leaders, regardless of alleged accusations against them, who kept the enemy at bay, kept the country safe and made sure the enemy paid a heavy price for their transgressions than it was to have a flip-flopping pacifist loser in office, with all sorts of promises none of which he has kept, and someone who ultimately gave away to enemy most of territories liberated by blood without even firing a shot! Nothing is sacred to Pashinyan. Everything is a transaction for him. Only a traitor would say some of the most unpatriotic vile things he has said over the years.
When you have a leader like Pashinyan with this kind of mentality who with his words and actions, in effect, paralyzes the army and gives the impression that nothing is worth fighting for and everything has a price and won’t allow those who serve under his leadership to fight and destroy the enemy and instead waves the white flag and turns them into hostages to the enemy it is obvious he is the main problem here. Also, as soon as he came to power he got rid of all former army officers and generals known for their bravery and victories in the battlefield over the years and replaced them with inexperienced fools subservient to him. So, we do have a patriotic army but we don’t have a patriotic leader to lead them and that won’t change until he is gone or forced out of office, whichever comes first. Our former defeated and humiliated vengeful enemy today has found a sheep like Pashinyan they will continue squeezing him for all that they can get until he is gone for good. The sooner that happens the better. The sooner that materializes the sooner the enemy will come to its senses and start singing a whole different tune and one that we were quite familiar with!
Enough of the arrogance of the Turks!
We need another Soghomon Tehlirian now!
How is it possible that Armenia, the country that produced an Alpha man, Soghomon Tehlirian, one of the greatest men who has ever lived, is also the same country that has produced a coward and wretch like Pashinyan?
All that Armenia can do is hang on until another Soghomon Tehlirian emerges.
He will put the Turks in their place.
Armenia urgently needs a patriotic, fearless and competent leader instead of the disastrous, unpatriotic, cowardly, appeasing and incompetent Pashinyan, who urgently needs to be replaced.
However, resorting to assassination is the worst thing to do, because firstly, it would make Pashinyan a martyr, and secondly, it would open the Pandora’s box for future assassinations of Armenian political leaders and politicians, which could lead to turmoil and even strife in Armenia.
Armenia already experienced the trauma of assassinations in 1999, when prime minister Vazgen Sargsyan and parliament speaker Karen Demirchyan were targeted and killed during the armed attack on the Armenian parliament.
Assassinating Turkish and Azerbaijani political leaders, politicians and diplomats by Armenians, likewise would provoke Turkey and Azerbaijan to attack Armenia, like Austria-Hungary attacked Serbia for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist.
Assassinations can often result in unintended and even disastrous consequences, and not the aim the assassin hopes for.
Armenia needs not only good leaders, but also needs to rebuild and modernize its military and as important, needs a smart foreign policy, both which are in tatters, in order to confront Turkey and Azerbaijan.
@Robert Whig
I agree with you that the disastrous, unpatriotic, cowardly, appeasing and incompetent Pashinyan must be urgently replaced by a patriotic, fearless and competent Armenian leader, as I am sure the vast majority in this comment section, the vast majority of The Armenian Weekly readers, the vast majority of the Armenian Diaspora and the vast majority of the Armenian electorate agree too. Who that might be, I have no idea.
However, resorting to assassination is the worst thing to do, because firstly, it would make Pashinyan a martyr, and secondly, it would open the Pandora’s box for future assassinations of Armenian political leaders and politicians, which could lead to turmoil and even strife in Armenia.
Armenia already experienced the trauma of assassinations in 1999, when prime minister Vazgen Sargsyan and parliament speaker Karen Demirchyan were targeted and killed during the armed attack on the Armenian parliament.
Assassinating Turkish and Azerbaijani political leaders, politicians and diplomats by Armenians, likewise would provoke Turkey and Azerbaijan to attack Armenia, like Austria-Hungary attacked Serbia for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist.
Assassinations can often result in unintended and even disastrous consequences, and not the aim the assassin hopes for.
Armenia needs not only good leaders, but also needs to rebuild and modernize its military, and as important, needs a smart foreign policy, both which are in tatters, in order to confront Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Dictator Aliyev, much like other ambitious leaders in the Middle East, has secured backing from Putin and Erdoğan. He embodies the spirit of a Mongol conqueror, aiming to assert control over the entire Armenian Highlands, while also seeking to deploy Middle Eastern jihadists alongside Afghan and Pakistani terrorists into Armenia.
The reality of the Artsakh war is not lost on Armenians, who witnessed his troops retreat in fear, save for the jihadists who acted as modern-day Ottoman Janissaries in the conflict.
How About Aliev Allowing the return of 120 000 Armenians to Artsakh And over 150 000 Armenian back to Baku and Sumgait.
Aliyev has gotten away with his war crimes and crimes against humanity in Artsakh, and his occupation of Armenia’s territory, because the so-called “international community” did nothing and doesn’t care. Because Aliyev wasn’t threatened with sanctions, let alone sanctioned, he pushes up the ante against Armenia and thereby tests the “tolerance threshold” of the “international community”. Because he has gotten away with it so far, he knows he will continue to get away with it.
And for major powers and the “international community”, a country that is not geostrategically important for them and doesn’t have the hydrocarbon and rare-earth metal resources, is not worth saving in their eyes. If Armenia had the hydrocarbon wealth and Azerbaijan didn’t, I bet the major powers would have rushed to help Armenia. Or if Armenia was located in the Holy Land and Armenians were the “cause célèbre” of the “international community” like Palestinians are. It may sound oversimplified, but in this unjust world, it is the stark and bitter reality.
Its amounts are exaggerated. Azerbaijan’s ‘hydrocarbon wealth’ is of no importance to the US. Naturally wee have our own oil.
Steve M very true in the second paragraph about lack of support however whilst Armenia isn’t going to be a cause celebre land and people internationally although as a people have a strong sense of identity and affiliation. This also means that anti Armenianism isn’t a universal phenomenon either. Indifference is indifference.
Alief dreams of the return of Armenians to their home in Azerbaijan to have the possibility to send his marines to torture innocent Armenians.
one he occupied Armenian’s ancestor’s lands by force and crimes. now he wanted to accomplish his criminal tasks.
We have a PM who cannot defend the Armenian people from the harm of neighbor countries. and there is no countries to stand behind the Armenians and Armenia.
Aliyev and his criminal predecessors facilitated the demographic changes by purging over 300,000
Armenians from Azerbaijan in addition to the genocide in Artsakh. His statement on Azeris is laughable given his criminal behavior. It is simply another “demands” in the endless charade of the “peace” treaty.
Aliyev wont compromise as long as the turkic mole runs yerevan. Its so obvious, but people in hayastan are apathetic. They care more to run to glendale than fight and protect their homeland?