Azernews.Az

By Vafa Ismayilova

A group of Azerbaijanis from a village, which once belonged to Azerbaijan and later handed over to Armenia during the Soviet time, have asked President Ilham Aliyev to help them get repatriated to their ancestral land and the issue be raised at international circles, Azertag has reported.

The appeal was adopted by Nuvadi village residents at the international scientific and practical conference titled "Call of Nuvadi: restoration of violated rights". The conference was dedicated to the 30th anniversary (1991-2021) of the deportation of West Zangazur region's Nuvadi village residents.

"As the leader of the Azerbaijanis in the world and our head of state working tirelessly day and night to protect the rights of all Azerbaijani citizens,... we ask you to support the return of the population of Nuvadi village to their homeland... and to raise this issue in the international arena," the appeal said.

They asked the president not to spare his efforts globally in establishing the violated rights of the residents of Nuvadi, where not a single Armenian lived until August 1991.

Nuvadi residents stressed that they have been appealing to all international organizations for almost four months.

"With the exception of some, most international organizations have not yet reacted to this issue. We, the residents of Nuvadi, will not give up this work. Only you can support us in this work as a genius leader and political figure who broke an information blockade around the world," the appeal said.

They underlined that President Aliyev's peace proposal to Armenia is an example to the whole world of ensuring the people's right to peace.

"In accordance with your call, the residents of Nuvadi village also want to return to their native lands on the principle of peaceful coexistence. This is our legal and historical right. All human rights documents fully affirm our right to return," the appeal added.

It stressed that their legal and historical rights are recognized under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the International Convention on the Status of Refugees of 1951, the International Covenants of 1966, the UN Guidelines on Internally Displaced Persons of 1998, the UN Economic and Social Council document on the Principles of Restoration of Housing and Property for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons aadopted in 2005 and other international documents.

"Today, there are about 100,000 Armenians in Azerbaijan, but no Azerbaijanis live in Armenia. This is a great violation of justice," the appeal said.

It underlined that policy of international crimes committed by Armenian chauvinists against the Azerbaijani people and Azerbaijani statehood since the 19th century led to the complete deportation of Azerbaijanis from their ancient homeland, Zangazur.

"Azerbaijan's historical village of Nuvadi, inhabited only by Azerbaijanis, was able to withstand Armenian attacks until August 8, 1991. From August 8, 1991 to October 29, 1993, that is before the occupation of Zangilan region by Armenia, the people of Nuvadi settled in the border village of Vejnali in Zangilan. Every day they looked forward to returning to Nuvadi, not far from the village of Vejnali. However, the occupation of Zangilan region did not allow to realize these dreams," it noted.

On July 14, President Aliyev described West Zangazur as Azerbaijan’s historical land handed over to Armenia during the Soviet era.

“The East Zangazur economic zone has been established. Armenia has now raised hysteria about this issue. There is no need for that because East Zangazur is our historical land. West Zangazur is our historical land. We cannot forget history. We cannot become hostages of anyone's political interests. Let them look up historical documents and maps and see when the Soviet government tore Zangazur apart from Azerbaijan and handed it over to Armenia. This is a relatively recent date – 101 years ago,” he said.

The head of state underlined that Azerbaijanis will return to their historical lands.