Aykhan Hajizada, the Spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, recently stated that it’s unreasonable and unfair to categorize the relocation of Armenian residents from Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region to Armenia as forced migration, according to Azeritimes.com. This statement was in response to comments made by Samantha Power, the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Hajizada emphasized that portraying this migration as forced is baseless and unjust. He pointed out the lack of acknowledgement regarding the presence of illegal Armenian armed forces in Azerbaijan’s sovereign territories for almost three decades, even after the conflict, which goes against international law and Armenia’s obligations.
Furthermore, Hajizada criticized Power for meeting with Armenians who migrated to Armenia during her regional visit but not with Azerbaijani Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees affected by Armenian aggression. He highlighted the lack of attention to the plight of the significantly larger number of Azerbaijani IDPs, noting that not once in the nearly 30 years of occupation did a USAID Administrator visit to assess their severe situation.
