Western Azerbaijan Community

The Western Azerbaijan Community deeply thanks the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mr. Ilham Aliyev, for his detailed presentation of the topic of West Azerbaijan in his speech at the 2nd Global Media Forum in Shusha and his unequivocal support for the right of return of Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia.

As Mr. President emphasized, the number of Azerbaijanis and their descendants expelled from Western Azerbaijan today in Azerbaijan amounts to millions. Let us recall that according to the results of the general population census conducted in the Russian Empire in 1897, Azerbaijanis constituted the majority in the territory of present-day Armenia. At that time, 25 percent of the Azerbaijani population of the South Caucasus, including 30 percent of their registered mosques, were located in what is now Armenia. Today there is not a single Azerbaijani left in Armenia; about 300 of their mosques, numerous cemeteries and other cultural monuments have been destroyed. 90 percent of residential areas owned by Azerbaijanis in Armenia are abandoned and destroyed.

As Mr. President noted, West Azerbaijanis experienced all the suffering of deportation. They were forced to leave their homes as a result of massacres, the creation of an atmosphere of fear and coercion by government authorities. The deportation of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis from Armenia in 1948-53 for the purpose of removing Armenians from abroad, as well as the fact that many of them died due to various climatic conditions, is one of the tragic pages in the fate of Western Azerbaijanis.

The Western Azerbaijan Community calls on the Armenian government to comply with its international legal obligations, create conditions for the return of West Azerbaijanis to their homeland, and restore the destroyed Azerbaijani cultural heritage.

Moreover, Western countries that call themselves defenders of democracy and human rights must end their indifference and discrimination regarding the right of return of Azerbaijanis.