Meeting of Ilham Aliyev with a Group of Intellectuals from Western Azerbaijan

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev met with a group of intellectuals from Western Azerbaijan on December 24. The head of state delivered a speech at the meeting and spoke about the moral value of the building where the Western Azerbaijan Community is located and stated that one of the main moral reasons for the Community’s location here is that the internally displaced people of Karabakh, who were once located in this building, are now returning to their lands, and in the future, our compatriots from Western Azerbaijan will also return to our historical lands in Western Azerbaijan.

President Ilham Aliyev stated that Western Azerbaijan is our historical lands and touched upon the policy of deportation and ethnic cleansing carried out at various stages of modern history against our compatriots who are the ancient inhabitants of these lands and the policy of vandalism committed against our historical and cultural heritage located in our historical territories, and emphasized the importance of conveying these historical facts to the world community. Noting that it is very important for all of us that the Western Azerbaijan Community operates in a more organized form, the head of state emphasized the importance of this work to be carried out single-mindedly in several directions both at the local level and at the international level.

President Ilham Aliyev stated that exhibitions, presentations, international conferences should be held in this direction, events should be organized together with Azerbaijani diaspora organizations, contacts should be established with political circles, press and legislative bodies of foreign countries, in order to restore the rights of Western Azerbaijanis and return them to their native lands international lawyers should be involved, at the same time our books on historical facts should be updated. In order to ensure that this topic does not leave the international agenda, an international conference on Western Azerbaijan should be held in Baku once a year or every two years, inviting scientists, archaeologists, and historians from the countries we consider friends.

The head of state noted that in parallel with all this, we should demand our rights taking into account the provisions enshrined to us by international conventions, and develop a Concept of Return to Western Azerbaijan with a peaceful context based on international norms and principles, and all information resources operating in this direction – newspapers, information portals, public associations, digital platform and so on should be integrated and work should be conducted single-mindedly within the framework of a sole concept and policy.

At the end of the event, the representatives of the Western Azerbaijan Community expressed their gratitude to the head of state for the comprehensive conditions created to fight for the return of our historical lands.