Azerbaijani Community of NK releases statement on Lachin’s occupation

The Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan has issued a statement on the 28th anniversary of the occupation of Lachin district.

“On May 18, 1992, Armenian Armed Forces occupied Lachin district, one of the Azerbaijani regions of strategic importance, located on the border with Armenia.

The Armenian armed forces’ attack on Lachin district ended up with the occupation of one town, one settlement, and 125 villages of the region. Armenians despoiled 217 cultural, 101 educational, 142 healthcare, 462 trade, and 30 communication, as well as two motor transport facilities and various production enterprises. More than 77,000 Lachin residents were forced to flee their homes, and their properties were looted. The persons displaced from Lachin have temporarily settled in 57 cities and districts of Azerbaijan.

The sixth-century Albanian Aghoghlan cloister and the fourteenth century Malik Ajdar tomb, the mosque in Garigishlag village, and the ancient cemetery in Zabukh village subjected to vandalism,” the statement says.

On behalf of over 80,000 Azerbaijanis in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and more than 1 million Azerbaijanis subjected to ethnic cleansing in all occupied Azerbaijani lands, the Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh, called on the world community to end the ongoing aggression by Armenia against the Azerbaijani people.

“Armenia continues to undermine the peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict seriously with its statements and calls for the annexation of Azerbaijani territories,” said the Azerbaijani community.

A just solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict is possible only through the withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and the return of the Azerbaijani refugees, including Lachin residents, to their native lands,” the statement said.