Aliyev Again Refers to Most of Armenia as ‘Western Azerbaijan’

President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan demanded that Yerevan ensure the “safe return” of Azerbaijanis who fled Armenia in the late 1980’s, again referring to much of present-day Armenia as “western Azerbaijan.”

“We are waiting for a clear statement from the Armenian authorities about how the inhabitants of Western Azerbaijan expelled from the current territory of Armenia or their descendants can return to their historical lands, visit or live in those territories,” Aliyev said during a so-called “Global Media Forum” in occupied Shushi over the weekend.

“According to our reliable information,” Aliyev said, “90 percent of the villages where Azerbaijanis lived are now empty.”

Soon after Azerbaijan’s brutal attack on Artsakh last September, which forced an exodus of Artsakh Armenians from their homeland, Aliyev, his government and most media in Azerbaijan have adopted the term “western Azerbaijan” to describe Armenia.

The term stems from Aliyev’s long-held belief that Yerevan and parts of Armenia are “historic Azerbaijani lands. He has pledged to ensure the “eventual repatriation” of Azerbaijanis back to Armenia and has demanded the Armenian government to make that possible.

However, when talks turns to the more than 200,000 Armenians who were massacred by Azerbaijani forces and forced out of their homes in Sumgait, Kirovabad, Baku and other areas beginning in 1988, there is generally silence from Baku.

Aliyev, over the weekend, again claimed that Artsakh Armenians were not forced to flee their homes and abandon their ancestral homeland.

The Azerbaijani president’s statements come as he and other high-level government officials are demanding—threatening—that Armenia change its constitution, claiming that the document contains territorial demands from Azerbaijan.

Aliyev has insisted that without constitutional amendments, the signing of a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan would be impossible.