Aliyev criticizes Armenia’s former, current authorities (PAN.am)

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, whose country launched the 44-day war, carried out aggression against Armenia and committed ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh, leveled accusations against Armenia’s former and current authorities at the eighth congress of the Yeni Azerbaijan Party.

“All the blame cannot be placed solely on Armenia’s former leadership. Although Armenia’s former leaders — all of them — are war criminals and must receive the punishment they deserve,” he said, Minval.az reported.

He added that “Armenia’s current authorities were making territorial claims.”

“They tried to insult the Azerbaijani people and offended the dignity of the Azerbaijani people with their inappropriate and tactless statements,” Aliyev said, adding that they “should never forget” this.

On Sept. 19, 2023, Azerbaijan launched a large-scale attack against Nagorno-Karabakh, subjecting the entire territory to massive shelling. As a result, one day later, on Sept. 20, the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities accepted the Russian peacekeeping mission command’s proposal for a ceasefire, agreeing to Baku’s terms — the disarmament of the Defense Army and dissolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The attack killed 223 people, including 20 civilians, six of them minors. The forced displacement of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians began on Sept. 24, with more than 100,000 people forcibly displaced to Armenia. According to some reports, around 20 Armenians remained in Nagorno-Karabakh; 11 of them later returned to Armenia, one died and one was detained.