Comment of the Press Service Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia dated January 13, 2021

The groundless statement of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia on the alleged massacre of the Armenians in Baku in January 1990 shows that the country has not yet given up fabricated propaganda and intends to incite discord and hostility between nations.

We remind the Foreign Ministry of Armenia that in 1948-1953, about 150,000 Azerbaijanis were massively deported from their historical and ethnic lands in the territory of the Armenian SSR and were forcibly relocated from 24 regions of the Armenian SSR and the city of Yerevan to Azerbaijan. Armenia's groundless territorial claims against Azerbaijan in the late 1980s, the aggressive separatist activities of chauvinist-minded Armenians in the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of Azerbaijan, the USSR's support for these activities, and the subsequent forcible and brutal deportation of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis from Armenia gave impetus to the expansion of the anti-Soviet movement in Azerbaijan. It was on the night of January 19-20, 1990, that the Soviet army entered the country in order to prevent a nationwide movement and break the will of the Azerbaijani people to commit an unprecedented massacre of civilians in gross violation of international law and the Constitutions of the former USSR and Azerbaijan SSR.

However, the events of January 1990 did not break the determination of the Azerbaijani people to independence, and our country regained its independence. Today, the independence and sovereignty of Azerbaijan are unambiguously recognized and supported by the entire international community.

By disseminating such fabricated propaganda, the Armenian Foreign Ministry intends to cover up the policy of genocide historically committed against the civilian population of Azerbaijan, the policy of ethnic cleansing, the brutal killing of 613 civilians overnight in Khojaly, and the gross violation of the fundamental rights of more than one million Azerbaijanis.

It is unfortunate that after the signing of the trilateral statement on the cessation of all hostilities in the region on November 10, 2020, instead of promoting the ideas of coexistence in peace, security and progress, official Yerevan continues propaganda of enmity on fabricated grounds and reveals the true intention of this country.

The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan rejects the unfounded accusations of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia and calls on this country to act in accordance with the obligations undertaken by the trilateral statements of November 10, 2020 and January 11, 2021 and based on the principles of the rule of international law.