AZERBAIJAN SPORTS COMMUNITY – STATEMENT

Since July 12 this year, the state border of our country in the direction of Tovuz has been attacked by the separatist and occupant Republic of Armenia. Henceforth, starting from September 27^th attacks of aggressor continued with pauses also at different directions with targeting residential areas and civilians, outside of the occupied Azerbaijani territories, by heavy artillery and large-caliber guns.

Nevertheless, the valiant troops of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan continue to appropriately respond to the provocations of the enemy and have full control over the operational situation. Our people are sensitive to what is happening, expressing high confidence in our Armed Forces and proudly greet the heroism of our troops. Our athletes have also voluntarily joined the operations of our Army and are fighting with great determination in the Great Patriotic War for the integrity of our lands. We already have a number of athletes among our martyrs, who gave their lives for the liberation of Karabakh, our ancient and inseparable land.

In recent days, a number of international organizations and states have been calling for the re-freezing of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh and 7 surrounding regions, the territory that makes 20 percent of our country and have been occupied nearly for 30 years. They make statements about the re-freezing of the conflict during which more than 25,000 Azerbaijani citizens killed and over 1 million people became refugees and IDPs. However, the adoption by the UN Security Council of four resolutions in 1993 (822, 853, 874 and 884 on the unconditional withdrawal of the occupant Armenian armed forces from the territory of Karabakh) and the negotiations mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group for almost thirty years did not yield results. We remind them that instead of freezing the conflict, it would be fair to call for the unconditional implementation of the above-mentioned UN resolutions by the occupant Republic of Armenia and returning of more than 1 million refugees and IDPs to their homeland.

We, the below listed organizations on behalf of the sport community of Azerbaijan, declare that we stand by our State until our territories, recognized under the international law, fully restored, the occupant Armenian forces withdrawn from our country, and more than 1 million refugees and IDPs returned to their homeland!

At the same time we invoke you to impartially inform the world community and sports organizations about the situation and we call on you to condemn this aggression of the occupant Republic of Armenia!

ON BEHALF OF AZERBAIJANI SPORTS SOCIETY

                                                                                                   Baku city, Azerbaijan

            6 october 2020