They gathered in Stepanakert for a summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) about two years after it became a ghost town following an Azerbaijani military offensive that forced Karabakh’s ethnic population to flee to Armenia and restored Baku’s full control over the territory.
In his speech at the summit, Aliyev made no mention of the exodus and instead asserted “the right of return of Azerbaijanis forcibly expelled from the territory of modern Armenia.”
“Efforts to ensure the peaceful return of Western Azerbaijanis to their ancestral lands, Armenia, will continue in the future,” he said.
Aliyev praised Muslim nations making up the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for backing his demands in a joint declaration adopted by their foreign ministers on June 21 at a meeting in Istanbul. The declaration condemned by Yerevan deplored “Armenia’s refusal to engage in dialogue with the Western Azerbaijani Community.”
Just days after the Istanbul meeting, Iran’s Foreign Ministry made clear that it disagrees with the pro-Azerbaijani wording of the declaration, saying that it “may cause a desire for geopolitical changes.” For his part, the Iranian ambassador to Armenia, Mehdi Sobhani, rejected Azerbaijani leaders’ continuing description of much of Armenia’s territory as “Western Azerbaijan.” Still, Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian, who was also present at the Stepanakert summit, did not openly object to Aliyev’s latest remarks.
The OIC declaration also said Armenia should “desist from undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan” and “address the remaining legal and political obstacles” to an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal. It thus effectively backed the Azerbaijani preconditions for the signing of such a treaty finalized by the two sides in March. Those include a change of Armenia’s constitution.
Aliyev said nothing about the agreement. He is reportedly due to meet with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian later this month.