Armenia ambassador-at-large: Azerbaijan’s Aliyev went to ethnically cleansed Stepanakert where no one is voting

Edmon Marukyan, the Ambassador-at-Large of Armenia, went on X—former Twitter—and reflected on Wednesday’s snap presidential elections of Azerbaijan.

“Today, during the snap presidential elections of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev arranged his voting in the city of Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh. According to Azerbaijani legislation, Ilham Aliyev was never registered in Stepanakert to be eligible for vote there. What is remarkable here is that Aliyev first started an unprovoked war against the peaceful people of Nagorno-Karabakh and then ethnically cleansed the people whom he called citizens of Azerbaijan. Now, he went to the ethnically cleansed city of Stepanakert, where there are no people to participate in the elections and participated in the elections with his family.

“The international community has first silently followed the unprovoked attack on the peaceful people, then the ethnic cleansing of more than 100,000 people, then started to call the ethnically cleansed city of Stepanakert - Khankendi at the request of Azerbaijan. However, according to all international laws, including the obligations committed by Azerbaijan before the Council of Europe, the names cannot be changed without the decision of the local population. But what are we talking about when now they are going to tolerate the voting of the Azeri president in an ethnically cleansed city, without even threatening to apply international sanctions for the carried out crimes against the people of Nagorno Karabakh,” Marukyan wrote.