On September 24, 2022, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov spoke at the 77th session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly.

According to the information given to APA by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it was said in the speech:

Mr. President,

Mr. Secretary General,

Your Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, I congratulate His Excellency Kasaba Kőrö on his assumption of the presidency of the 77th Session of the General Assembly and wish him success in his very responsible position.

Mr. Kőrösi can count on the full support of the Republic of Azerbaijan during his activities.

Also, I would like to express my gratitude to the outgoing President, His Excellency Mr. Abdulla Shahid, for his great work during his leadership last year.

Ladies and gentleman,

Azerbaijan is known for its contribution to the promotion of intercultural and interreligious dialogue.

In 2008, the "Baku Process" initiated by the Azerbaijan government together with the UN Alliance of Civilizations, the Council of Europe, UNESCO, ISESCO and other organizations defined the standards and its agenda for dialogue and intercultural cooperation.

The important role of the Baku Process in promoting intercultural dialogue was also mentioned in the reports of the UN Secretary General.

Based on the successful experience of the Baku Process, Azerbaijan, together with the UN Alliance of Civilizations and ISESCO, in June 2021 founded a new international initiative called the "Peace for Culture" global challenge to contribute to sustainable peace, development and protection of cultural heritage.

We believe that this initiative will be equally successful and we invite all countries and international organizations to join this project.

Dear Colleagues,

The world continues to face serious challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although the scale-up of vaccination and the adaptation of the world's population to new realities have raised hopes for the post-Covid-19 pandemic, serious challenges remain.

All the immediate and long-term challenges posed by the pandemic necessitate new mechanisms supported by high-level political participation that will provide a comprehensive framework for global cooperation and solidarity.

From the beginning, Azerbaijan has been a supporter of greater global solidarity to overcome the pandemic, both nationally and as the Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement, and has put forward a number of global initiatives for this purpose.

President Ilham Aliyev's initiative to convene a Special Session of the UN General Assembly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as the chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement has gained wide support from the UN membership.

On behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, Azerbaijan also discussed the resolutions on ensuring equal, affordable, timely and universal access to COVID-19 vaccines adopted by the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council with the great support of member states.

Along with an effective vaccination campaign within the country, Azerbaijan has donated a significant amount of COVID-19 vaccines to countries in need.

We have provided international assistance to more than 80 countries to fight the pandemic.

We will continue our activities aimed at strengthening international cooperation in the direction of eliminating the consequences of the pandemic and unifying our efforts for the global recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this regard, the President of Azerbaijan initiated the creation of the UN High-Level Panel on post-pandemic global recovery, and this will be one of the topics to be discussed at the upcoming Summit of the Contact Group of the Non-Aligned Movement to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, which will be held in Baku in the coming months.

Your Excellencies,

After gaining its independence, Azerbaijan has come a long way from a country facing security challenges in its own land to a country that contributes to global security.

Along this path, Azerbaijan has been a strong and reliable partner of the United Nations Organization, firmly supported it and actively contributed to its activities.

Azerbaijan is interested in continuing to contribute to peace and security, strengthening the international legal order, strengthening dialogue, global solidarity and multilateralism, both within its national capabilities and as the current chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement.

We also look forward to the Future Summit, its intergovernmental negotiated outcome and the New Agenda for Peace as an opportunity to reinvigorate global action and demonstrate a collective commitment to the United Nations Charter and multilateralism.

Azerbaijan is fully committed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the UN.

To this end, we launched a new development strategy until 2030;

this strategy, in turn, has been adapted to the 2030 agenda.

In the last year, Azerbaijan has progressed further in terms of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and was ranked among the first 50 countries in the UN Sustainable Development Report until 2022.

Azerbaijan is among the 12 countries that presented three Voluntary National Reviews at the High-Level Political Forum held under the auspices of ECOSOC.

We continue to make transformational changes in restructuring our economy to transition to a green and circular economy.

A clean environment and green development have been identified as one of the five priority areas of our new national development strategy.

Despite the important role of the oil and gas sector in our economy, this transition is high on our development agenda.

In this regard, in the first half of 2022, the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan increased by 11 percent and boosted the GDP growth by 7.2 percent.

At present, Azerbaijan is one of the rare countries that is gradually including sustainable energy in the development agenda, besides being a reliable exporter of hydrocarbons to international markets.

In this regard, we will increase our profile, including by introducing new elements of alternative and renewable energy.

The recently signed EU-Azerbaijan Memorandum on Strategic Energy Partnership is a good example of Azerbaijan's constructive contribution to global energy security.

Sustainability has also become central to post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation activities in liberated areas.

New cities and villages are now being built from scratch by applying modern urban planning methods, "smart city" and "smart village" concepts.

After the war, 3 billion US dollars have already been allocated from the state budget for these purposes, and Azerbaijan is interested in investing more in the future.

The freed area was declared a "green energy zone".

Located at the intersection of North-South and East-West transport corridors, Azerbaijan is a rising transit country.

Corridors and routes through the territory of Azerbaijan offer competitive advantages for transport operators and business entities in terms of high-level infrastructure and fast, safe transit traffic.

Ladies and gentleman,

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Azerbaijan's membership in the United Nations.

After becoming a part of the UN family, Azerbaijan has consistently demonstrated its firm commitment to the principles and goals of the UN Charter and international law.

We joined the UN when the principles defended by the UN regarding Azerbaijan were grossly violated.

In those difficult moments, the UN stood by Azerbaijan in defense of the main values ​​established in its Charter.

Azerbaijan suffered serious damage from Armenia's aggression in the early 1990s, which was based on territorial claims, misinterpretation of international law, fabricated historical stories and racist motives.

Back then, the UN Security Council unanimously expressed its support for Azerbaijan's sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of its internationally recognized borders and demanded the withdrawal of all occupying forces from Azerbaijan's territories.

So did the General Assembly.

During the aggression, Armenia occupied 20 percent of the territory of Azerbaijan.

20 thousand Azerbaijanis were killed, more than 1 million people became refugees and internally displaced persons.

The fate of nearly 4,000 missing Azerbaijani citizens, both civilians and soldiers, is still uncertain.

Armenia has caused long-term damage to Azerbaijan's environment.

Also, thousands of samples of Azerbaijan's cultural heritage were destroyed, looted or appropriated by Armenia.

At the beginning of this year, ISESCO sent a technical mission to Azerbaijan to carry out the Assessment of the State of Cultural Heritage Protection in the territories freed from occupation.

For decades, Azerbaijan has called on Armenia to support an independent, transparent UNESCO mission to assess and advise on the preservation and protection of cultural heritage in the region.

Although the occupation of Azerbaijan's territory by Armenia ended in 2020, the UNESCO mission has not yet arrived, and I once again openly call for the implementation of such a mission.

The scale of the violations and destruction demonstrates the clear intent and purpose of terrorizing, killing and expelling Azerbaijani civilians and erasing all traces of Azerbaijan from these areas.

In order to prevent the return of Azerbaijanis and ensure the annexation of these territories, Armenia, which has carried out ethnic cleansing for about 30 years, grossly violated international humanitarian law and carried out an illegal settlement policy by massively transferring Armenians from Armenia and third countries to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

Efforts to resolve conflicts under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have not yielded any results.

Almost 30 years later, in the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan launched a counter-offensive operation in response to Armenia's next large-scale military provocation and guided by the inalienable rights granted to member states by the UN Charter.

As a result, in accordance with the Tripartite Statement signed by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Russia and Armenia on November 10, 2020, Azerbaijan liberated its territories from occupation and the armed conflict that has been going on for three decades was resolved through military and political means.

The Tripartite Declaration announced the end of all military activities between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

In order to strengthen peace in the region, he defined parameters such as the complete withdrawal of all Armenian armed forces from the territory of Azerbaijan, the return of internally displaced persons and the opening of all economic and transport links in the region.

Azerbaijan has now started unprecedented recovery and reconstruction activities in its liberated territories, and their full reintegration is a priority.

The goal of such activities is ultimately to enable hundreds of thousands of IDPs to return to their homes in safety and dignity and to ensure a peaceful life in conflict-affected areas.

These days, the first families returned to Agali village of Zangilan district of Azerbaijan, which was freed from occupation.

Azerbaijan is determined to reintegrate citizens of Armenian origin living in conflict-affected areas into its political, social and economic space, ensuring the same rights and freedoms as all Azerbaijani citizens, regardless of their ethnic, religious or any other affiliation.

The Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan provides a solid legal framework in this regard.

One of the main obstacles to ongoing reconstruction and reconstruction and the safe return of IDPs is the massive contamination of de-occupied areas with mines and other explosive devices and Armenia's continued refusal to provide accurate and complete information about mined areas.

During the years of the occupation, and during the withdrawal of its forces from the territories of Azerbaijan, Armenia heavily and indiscriminately polluted those territories with mines and other explosive substances.

Since the signing of the Tripartite Declaration, more than 240 Azerbaijani citizens and soldiers have been killed or seriously injured as a result of mine explosions.

In addition to targeted and sustained international technical and financial assistance to further strengthen and enhance Azerbaijan's national mine-fighting capabilities and efforts, obtaining maps of minefields is critical in terms of saving lives and consolidating peace.

In this regard, continued UN support and adequate and predictable mine action funding are essential.

Your Excellencies,

Azerbaijan is committed to regional peace, stability and development.

The establishment of friendly neighborly relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan is the key to the establishment of a safe, stable and prosperous South Caucasus through full-fledged regional normalization.

Azerbaijan has started the process of normalization of interstate relations with Armenia on the basis of mutual recognition and respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, in addition to carrying out large-scale restoration and reconstruction works in the territories liberated from occupation and reintegration of residents in the territories affected by the conflict.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly declared that it is ready to start negotiations on a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan and created its own national delegation for this purpose.

At the same time, Azerbaijan made efforts in the direction of starting the process of delimitation and demarcation of state borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan, opening transport and communication links, including the creation of the Zangezur corridor, which is a part of the international transport network.

Despite the increased dynamics in contacts, including direct dialogue, between Armenia and Azerbaijan in recent months, Armenia appears to be sticking to its past practice of faking negotiations and often resorting to provocations, creating tensions and disrupting the ongoing normalization process with Azerbaijan instead of honoring its commitments. harms.

As stipulated in the Tripartite Statement dated November 10, Armenia has not fully withdrawn its armed forces from the territories of Azerbaijan and continues various military activities in the territories of Azerbaijan, including the placement of mines.

Recently, a large number of anti-personnel mines produced in Armenia in 2021 were discovered in the Lachin region of Azerbaijan.

After a series of political and military provocations, especially after the fourth meeting of the leaders of the two countries in Brussels, on the night of September 12-13, Armenia launched another large-scale military provocation by placing mines on the roads between the military positions of Azerbaijan, using the night time and complex terrain along the conventional state border line. gave up.

Later, Armenia fired at Azerbaijani positions using different types of weapons, which caused casualties among Azerbaijani military personnel and caused considerable damage to the military infrastructure.

Azerbaijan has taken adequate measures to neutralize the threat to its sovereignty and territorial integrity, to ensure the safety of personnel, as well as civilian personnel participating in reconstruction works in the area.

Azerbaijan's armed forces, showing extreme restraint and professionalism, targeted only Armenian firing points with high-precision weapons in order to prevent attacks on Azerbaijani positions.

Armenia clearly tried to increase the tension in order to manipulate the attention of the international community.

Thus, on September 13, Armenia ignored the agreed ceasefire and continued to fire high-caliber weapons and artillery on the territory of Azerbaijan.

As a result, 80 servicemen were killed, 282 servicemen and 2 civilians were injured on the Azerbaijani side.

Contrary to such dangerous actions of Armenia, Azerbaijan behaved extremely cautiously, took a number of steps, including contacts with relevant international partners, and demonstrated goodwill and true will for the restoration of the ceasefire regime.

Finally, the ceasefire was restored between Armenia and Azerbaijan through direct communication channels from 20:00 on September 14, and as confirmed by both sides, the ceasefire continues.

After the tension, Azerbaijan is engaged in eliminating the humanitarian consequences and in this context unilaterally declared its readiness to return the remains of the fallen military servicemen to Armenia and informed the ICRC about this.

Azerbaijan is not and cannot be interested in the existence of tension.

In fact, recent military operations have taken place near areas where large-scale post-conflict investment, rehabilitation and reconstruction projects have been implemented.

In addition, the latest tension closely matches the pattern we have seen from Armenia over the past 30 years.

Each time, Armenia resorted to similar serious sabotage as a means of avoiding the responsibility of making the necessary decisions at the decisive stage in order to achieve the breakthrough.

We would like that the current leadership of Armenia does not follow the path of its predecessors in deliberately closing the window of opportunities for peace and security in the region.

Azerbaijan is determined to overcome any threat to its sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as to the security of its citizens, and calls on Armenia to refrain from escalating the situation further.

Instead, Armenia should constructively engage in the ongoing normalization process to create a predictable stable situation in the region through the establishment of good neighborly relations.

In this context, according to the agreement reached at the fourth meeting of the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia with the chairman of the EU Council in Brussels on August 31, 2022, Azerbaijan once again declared that it is ready to start practical work on a peace agreement with Armenia without delay.

Immediately after the meeting, we offered Armenia a specific date and place for such talks.

Two days ago, we listened to the statement made by the Prime Minister of Armenia here.

Unfortunately, this was another proof that the Armenian side intends to continue the conflict instead of normalization.

In Azerbaijan, we believe that our region has seen enough conflict, destruction and suffering.

It is time for both nations to fully engage in post-conflict normalization so we can finally turn the tragic page of our history and begin to build a better future for our children.

The Azerbaijani side is committed to its obligations.

We hope that Armenia will finally respond constructively and sincerely join the negotiations.

Your Excellencies,

Having freed its territories from long-term foreign military occupation, Azerbaijan is determined to spare no effort in their full reconstruction and reintegration in accordance with the highest possible standards.

At the same time, our country will continue to play the role of a responsible member of the international community in all relevant fields, whether it is contributing to global energy security, helping to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, or promoting sustainable development.

We believe that no country is an island in a globalized world and we act accordingly.

Thank you.