Azerbaijan has warned that “revanchist forces” in Armenia and the Armenian diaspora “are still strong” and are trying to undermine the historic peace process between the former rivals.
In a wide-ranging panel at the Arab Media Summit in Dubai on Wednesday, Assistant of the President of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev told Euronews that “probably Armenian government and Armenian leadership should work to prepare their people for the peace as well.”
“Now we won the war, but we are also winning in peace which is an uphill struggle,” said Hajiyev, who is also Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration.
“Throughout the years of occupation in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur, our mosques, our Islamic cultural heritage were a subject of complete destruction by Armenia — even the pigs were put inside of the mosques.”
“We are not taking it as a sign of revenge, but it’s our history and our heritage and we cannot forget that;” he added.
The presidential advisor outlined that while his country is part of the broader Islamic civilisation, “currently, three religions — Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, with mosques, churches, and synagogues — are side by side” in Azerbaijan.
Hajiyev further said Azerbaijan is dedicated to “preserving the Christian heritage on the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan, regardless of their belonging, and that is a full stop because it’s our cultural heritage.”
Speaking of Azerbaijan’s history of cultural and religious coexistence, Hajiyev explained that he was “more than proud that my country is one of the first places of Zoroastrianism.”
“It’s also one of the first places of Christianity since the fourth century: Christianity was adopted by the (Caucasian) Kingdom of Albania as an official religion,” while Azerbaijan was “also one of the first countries that adopted Islam.”
Caucasian Albania was an ancient kingdom in what is now Azerbaijan and parts of southern Dagestan, unrelated to the Western Balkan state of Albania — also once a kingdom — with which it shares only a name.
Armenian church authorities have disputed Azerbaijan’s record on religious sites, accusing Baku of demolishing churches in Karabakh, claims Azerbaijan rejects.
‘EU should embrace the entire region’
In the Euronews Forum panel at the Arab Media Summit, the top Azerbaijani official reiterated Baku’s firm position that even after securing peace, the South Caucasus country is still subject to “disinformation”.
“One such institution is the European Parliament which is not part of the solution, it’s part of the problem,” along with certain Western media outlets, Hajiyev said.
“The European Parliament is adopting resolutions and decisions, humiliating and also undermining the agenda of peace of our region,” he added.
“We are in the process of building regional peace, but the European Parliament is pursuing some completely different agenda.”
Hajiyev pointed out the EU’s policy towards the South Caucasus “shouldn’t be only a one-centric approach, it should embrace the entire region with balanced cooperation with the regional countries.”
Furthermore, the EU policy should be about “building the concept of the new partnership … and not to build into dividing lines,” according to him.
Hajiyev reiterated that Azerbaijan contributes to the EU’s energy security by supplying gas to 16 EU member countries and other European countries as well, and in that sense, the Middle Corridor connectivity project could bring Azerbaijan and the EU even closer.