Baku, February 11, AZERTAC

“Claims by the Prime Minister of Armenia in his article published at Armenpress on 10 February 2025, about alleged preparations by Azerbaijan for an attack against Armenia, on purposes of the Western Azerbaijan Community, as well as many other baseless allegations are made to distort the reality and deceive the global community.

Interestingly, the Prime Minister who is advocating for the right to have military capabilities, represents a country that in addition to 30 years of military occupation, throughout three years since the end of the 44-day war kept more than ten thousand strong-armed formations equipped with heavy weaponry in the territory of Azerbaijan, despite the commitment it undertook under the Trilateral Statement,” said Aykhan Hajizada, Spokesperson for Azerbaijan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as he commented on allegations made by Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of Armenia, in his article at Armenpress.

“Since the end of the 44-day war, Armenia’s military spending has almost tripled, reaching $1.6 billion in 2024 from approximately $600 million in 2021. Moreover, based on recently signed military contracts, Armenia mostly obtains offensive weaponry that can hit long inside the territories of Azerbaijan.

Military build-up justification by Armenia is insincere and poses a direct security threat against Azerbaijan taking into account the fact of ongoing territorial claims in the Constitution and legal acts of Armenia, as well as the resurgence of revanchism.

Additionally, allegations about the cause and activities of the Western Azerbaijan Community are completely groundless, bearing in mind that the primary goal of this community is to return in a safe and dignified manner to the lands from which they were expelled, based on the right of return established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Status of Refugees, and other important international acts. Denial of this right by the Prime Minister of Armenia using different pretexts, including misinterpretation of the declared goals of the Community once again demonstrates the level of cruelty of Armenian policy that led to a country without Azerbaijanis once represented a significant part of the population.

The reference by the Armenian Prime Minister to the Prague meeting of 2022, the Almaty Declaration of 1991, presumed paragraphs of the draft peace agreement to prove that indeed Armenia has no and will have no claims against Azerbaijan, unfortunately, has been undermined by Mr. Pashinyan himself not only several months later in September 2023, when he sent a congratulatory message on so-called independence of the puppet regime created on Azerbaijan’s territories, but also by turning a blind eye to the territorial claims in the Constitution, and to the disclaimers made by Armenia while adhering to the Almaty Declaration.

Even today, instead of applauding the trial against the people accused of war crimes, calling the court a staged one attests that Armenia is not interested in healing the wounds it has caused for decades, and to face the truth that this trial might bring up to the surface.

Moreover, instead of taking practical steps in implementing commitments, including in the area of opening up communication links between Azerbaijan and its Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Armenia diverts attention from the process. In this regard, instead of moving forward with actions in this area, Armenia’s proposals with no practical importance lead to misunderstandings and distort the realities.

Concerning the establishment of mechanisms for arms control that the Prime Minister “wholeheartedly” promotes, it is well known that for more than 30 years Armenia flagrantly violated and degraded arms control mechanisms to which Armenia itself is a party, and concealed the majority of its military hardware and weaponry from international arms control mechanisms by illegally deploying them in our territories. This approach to international treaties brings us to the conclusion about the insincere posture of Armenia.

We urge Armenia to abandon statements and actions that undermine the prospects for peace,” Hajizada added.