Recently, a video recording of the speech of the former President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan at the meeting of the “Yerkrapa” volunteer association on July 23-24, 1993 has been circulated on social media.
The translation of that part of the text of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s speech as president is presented below:
“Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have solved a problem that the Armenian people had been unable to resolve for 600 years. Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have been completely cleansed of foreign nations. I repeat, this was a 600-year-old problem. The Armenian people will feel the significance of this for at least the next 600 years. Imagine if, today, Armenia had 180 000 representatives of foreign nations, as it did in 1988. Today, our state would not exist. We would not have been able to defend Zangezur, our northeastern regions, or the shores of Sevan. Even several autonomies would have arisen here. Remember, Azerbaijanis were the majority in three districts—Vardenis, Masis, and Amasia. In Zangezur, their numbers were exceedingly high. Now this problem has been solved.”
Unfortunately, Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s speech as president of Armenia, demonstrates the deeply entrenched racism, hatred toward the Azerbaijani people, and policy of occupation rooted in Armenia’s political circles.
These statements actually cover the periods when Petrosyan was acting as president. During these periods, he was an official of Armenia, and he generally states the crimes of ethnic cleansing and deportation committed against Azerbaijanis.
The phrase “Armenia and Karabakh were cleansed of foreign nations” expressed here specifically confirms the fact of ethnic cleansing and deportation from the language of the first person of Armenia. Of course, in this case, we can also refer to the said fact during our activities for the return of our compatriots, during our appeals to the international community.
Moreover, it is not excluded that this fact will be widely used in the legal sphere. In all its statements, appeals and letters, the Western Azerbaijan Community calls on the international community to call on Armenia to ensure the return of Azerbaijanis who were forcibly expelled from this country.
Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s speech, delivered in his capacity as president, is an irrefutable evidence of Armenia’s state-run, systematic ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis in its territory and in the formerly occupied Azerbaijani lands. Armenia initiated the conflict in 1987 to carry out ethnic cleansing and create a monoethnic space, to realize the mythical concept of “greater Armenia” at the expense of Azerbaijani territories. Armenia has pursued an ethnic cleansing policy against the Azerbaijani people under the approach of “no population, no problem.” The essence of Armenian statehood has remained unchanged, from Levon Ter-Petrosyan to warlords-turned-politicians like Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, and “democratic” Nikol Pashinyan. The current Armenian government continues this crime by preventing the return of deported Azerbaijanis.
We call on the international community to condemn Armenia’s racist policies and urge it to begin dialogue with the Western Azerbaijan Community. The Western Azerbaijan Community will continue its efforts within the framework of international law to hold Armenia accountable and ensure the peaceful, safe, and dignified return of Western Azerbaijanis to their ancestral lands.
Ms. Ulviyya Zulfikar is the Spokesperson of the Western Azerbaijan Community.
