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Qabil Ashirov

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It is deeply regrettable that American congressmen Frank Pellone and Ed Markey made untruthful statements in the United States about their visit to Azerbaijan after their participation in a prestigious event such as the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29).

Azernews reports that Sabina Aliyeva, the human rights commissioner (ombudsman) of the Republic of Azerbaijan, said this in her reaction to the congressmen's statements.

According to the ombudsman, the allegations made by the congressmen regarding the situation in the Garabakh region of Azerbaijan once again demonstrate their bias against Azerbaijan.

"Instead of the untruthful approach of those congressmen, we would expect them to put forward the issue of guaranteeing the right of return of hundreds of thousands of our compatriots who were expelled due to their ethnicity from the territory of Armenia, and the safe and dignified return of those people to their homeland without any discrimination.

At the same time, we would like to remind the congressmen that as a result of the occupation policy implemented by Armenia with groundless territorial claims against our country, twenty percent of the internationally recognized lands of Azerbaijan have been occupied by this country for nearly thirty years, and more than one million Azerbaijanis have become forced refugees.

However, we are witnessing that Frank Pellone and Ed Markey, in this sensitive period, instead of taking steps to establish sustainable peace in the region, are showing their position in the direction of creating new conflict centers. In his speech, Pellone's decision to name an illegitimate "institution" not even recognized by the United States of America and its "leader" who is under investigation for committing war crimes, meddling in the internal affairs of another country, disregarding the generally recognized norms and principles of international law, "that congressman What political circles does it serve?" answers the question.

I would also like to point out that these congressmen have not yet provided any information to our country about the landmine terrorism carried out by Armenia that ended the lives of the civilian population, including the elderly, women and children, about the fate of nearly 4,000 Azerbaijanis who have gone missing since the First Garabakh War. The fact that they are silent about not being presented also proves their bias once again.

"Congressman Pellone's evasion of questions addressed to him by representatives of independent press bodies during COP29 and his inability to respond to valid arguments later justified with absurd claims is a clear example of his intolerance to freedom of speech and press," said Sabina Aliyeva.

She once again condemned the groundless and biased opinions of the US congressmen based on the instructions of the Armenian lobby, and invited them to respect international law and not to try to create a conflict on the national level.