Baku, April 2, AZERTAC

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan has already expressed its position on the so-called “elections” in its occupied territories. Having familiarized with the statement of the Armenian Foreign Ministry - the aggressor country on this issue, involuntarily the associations appear with the fairy tale “Alice through the looking glass”, whose heroes are in their fictional world of dreams and lusts. The reality is completely different and quite well known to the world community,” said spokesperson for Azerbaijan`s Foreign Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva.

Leyla Abdullayeva said: “Illegal “elections” organized by the Republic of Armenia in the occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan on March 31 this year were strongly condemned and rejected by the international community. In the context of the still ongoing military occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and the adjacent regions of Azerbaijan, as well as the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis from their homes as a result of ethnic cleansing, violation of the fundamental human rights of the local Azerbaijani population of the occupied territories, there can be no other position with regard to this illegal action, organized by the Republic of Armenia. In accordance with international standards for conducting elections, including in the OSCE commitments, elections in any state should be held in accordance with the Constitution and the Electoral Code of the country. The so-called “elections” held in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of our country violate the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan and, therefore, have no legal force.”

“International and regional organizations, including the European Union, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, NATO, GUAM, the Turkic Council, as well as the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, many states made statements condemning these so-called “elections” and emphasized that they cannot be recognized as legally valid. We are grateful to international organizations and individual countries for their principled position and for the message sent to Armenia that “the forced acquisition of territories by force cannot be recognized as legitimate; the occupation of territories cannot be used to impose their international recognition or change their legal status.”

“It is regrettable that Armenia has not yet been able to realize that the military occupation of the internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan will not bring the political results desired by Armenia. What did Armenia achieve by organizing a fiction in Nagorno-Karabakh under the name of “election”, allocating considerable financial resources for this chimera from its budget? Speaking of “democracy” under conditions of military occupation and ongoing ethnic cleansing is nothing more than insinuation and self-deception. By the way, the very fact of a separate statement by the Armenian Foreign Ministry on the so-called "elections" show in Nagorno-Karabakh once again proves the absence of the need for the participation of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh in the negotiations.

I would like to emphasize once again that elections in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan are held in accordance with the Constitution of the country, and any act organized in violation of this Supreme Law is not legitimate and cannot be so,” she added.