The speaker made the remarks Wednesday at the Federation Council of Russia's Federal Assembly.

Gafarova briefed on the history of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in order for the participants to objectively and completely understand the conflict.

“The Kurekchay Treaty on the transfer of the Karabakh khanate to the Russian Empire was signed on 14 May 1805 in the village of Kurekchay, Ganja city, Azerbaijan. The treaty was signed by the Karabakh Khanate's ruler Ibrahimkhalil Khan and the General of the Russian Empire Pavel Tsitsianov,” she said. “In 1921, the Caucasian Bureau of the Bolshevik Party made a decision to retain Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. This is not about “transfer”, as some fake Armenian sources unreasonably claim, but about “preservation”. In 1923, the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic adopted a decree on the creation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region within Azerbaijan.”

The speaker emphasized that Armenia has never abandoned its attempts to seize Nagorno-Karabakh.

“In the 1980s, this happened again. At this time, hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis, who have lived for centuries on their historical lands, were deported from Armenia, and 700,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis were expelled from their permanent residence in Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. As a result of ethnic cleansing, there were numerous casualties among the civilian population. Despite modern international humanitarian law, the demographic situation in the occupied territories was illegally changed,” Gafarova added.

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