The Ireland-based website “The Journal” has published an interview of Azerbaijani Ambassador to Ireland Elin Suleymanov.

The article reads: “Tensions remain high between Azerbaijan and Armenia with Azerbaijan this week hosting joint military drills with Türkiye near the border of Armenia.

Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Ireland and the UK has criticized the European Parliament for accusing Azerbaijan of ethnic cleansing and said the tone of the conversation surrounding Karabakh “needs to change”.

Speaking to The Journal, Ambassador Elin Suleymanov, rejected the Parliament’s accusation as an “emotional decision” and said Azerbaijan wants to work with the EU as an equal partner “not somebody who would be mentored, lectured and have fingers pointed at”.

The United Nations sent a monitoring mission to the region at the beginning of October to find the area largely deserted but has not itself used the term ethnic cleansing.

The spokesperson added that the UN did not come across any reports of violence against civilians following the latest ceasefire while the UN has committed to further visits to the region.

“Our objective is to build a region where we can all live in peace and cooperate with each other towards a more prosperous future for all of us,” he said.

Suleymanov added that a “fundamentally important question” is why the Armenian ambassador “talks about the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan all of the time?”

“He doesn’t speak about anything else,” he said.

Suleymanov pointed out that between 800,000 and 900,000 Azerbaijani’s were expelled from the region in the 1990s.

“We don’t want to do what they did to us. Most of those people who escaped Armenian occupation, their houses were destroyed. They were escaping violence, murders, military also. People who left Azerbaijan today for Armenia, they did not do so under direct order and they were not encouraged to leave,” he said.

Suleymanov said what Azerbaijan wants to see now is for both countries to sign a peace agreement.

However, tensions remained heightened between both countries with Azerbaijan this week hosting joint military drills with Türkiye near the border of Armenia.

Suleymanov said that such drills are routine and pointed to Armenia’s purchase of defensive military equipment from France this week and said “Azerbaijan has to be prepared”.

“Against all this rumor mill, we don’t have any plans to attack Armenia,” Suleymanov said.

The full version of the interview is available at:

https://www.thejournal.ie/azerbaijan-ambassador-to-ireland-nagorno-karabakh-6204903-Oct2023/