Armenia acquires weapons and equipment solely to exercise its right to self-defense - Foreign Ministry

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 4, ARMENPRESS. Armenia acquires weapons and equipment solely to exercise its right to self-defense and to protect its citizens," the spokesperson for the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Ani Badalyan, told Armenpress in response to a question regarding Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's recent remarks in Jabrayil about Armenia's military acquisitions and his accompanying threats.

“Moreover, threatening and aggressive statements from Azerbaijan have been increasingly common lately. How do you interpret these statements?”

“Yerevan has reiterated many times—at the highest levels—that it harbors no aggressive intentions toward any neighbor, recognizes the territorial integrity of all of them, and has no territorial claims,” Badalyan replied.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson also emphasized that the recent decision of the Constitutional Court of Armenia confirmed the compliance of the regulations governing the joint activities of the Armenian and Azerbaijani border delimitation commissions with the Armenian constitution, rejecting any claims that the Constitution contains territorial claims against its neighbors.

"Armenia has also stated that, although some of its territories are occupied by Azerbaijan, it has no intention or agenda to return these territories by military means,  because the above-mentioned regulation of the joint activities of the border delimitation commissions provides all the opportunities to address and solve these problems peacefully and through negotiations.

Regarding weapons, the UN Charter grants each country the right to self-defense. Additionally, international law imposes the obligation on every nation to protect its citizens. Armenia acquires weapons and equipment solely to exercise its right of self-defense and fulfill its responsibility to protect its citizens. In parallel, Azerbaijan’s arsenal of offensive weapons far exceeds that of Armenia, as often stated by the President of Azerbaijan."

Now, considering all this, the question arises: why does Azerbaijan emphasize the points mentioned in the previous question? Is it preparing for aggression against Armenia?

The Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson stated that she believes it is important to seek an answer to this question, as it will help assess concerns that Azerbaijan may use the upcoming COP29 conference in Baku as a smokescreen to launch a new military aggression against Armenia and to distribute its political accountability among the foreign leaders who traveled to Baku to participate in COP29.

Baku's recent statements raise several important questions," the Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, and she raised two more of them:

a) Does Azerbaijan refuse the agreements to recognize the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Armenia based on the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991? I emphasize once again that Armenia reaffirms its loyalty to the agreement reached with Azerbaijan on the basis of the Alma-Ata Declaration; that is, to recognize each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty along the administrative borders of the former Soviet republics.

b) Does Azerbaijan abandon the Peace Agenda? Armenia reaffirms its commitment to the Peace Agenda and its readiness to sign the content of the already agreed peace with Azerbaijan as a peace treaty, about which the prime minister of Armenia announced in his speech at the recent 79th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

We believe that instead of aggressive rhetoric, we should focus on resolving the issue of signing the peace treaty as soon as possible and negotiating on other issues not only in de facto, but also in de jure peace conditions.’’