Yerevan should express an unequivocal position on when and under what conditions Western Azerbaijanis can return to their ancestral lands, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has addressed the participants of the international conference on “Return to Western Azerbaijan as an Important Condition for the Supremacy of Human Rights” being held in Ankara.

"Armenia should give up its territorial claims against neighboring states, take steps to restore and protect the cultural heritage of Azerbaijanis, allow access to the UNESCO monitoring mission, and start a dialogue with the Community on the issue of return," Ilham Aliyev said.

According to the head of state, the peaceful initiatives of the Western Azerbaijan Community are in accordance with international law, they does not mean a territorial claim against Armenia.

"We believe that Western Azerbaijanis will return to their native lands safely and with dignity, and that lasting peace will be established in the region," Ilham Aliyev said.

He stressed that this issue will not leave Azerbaijan’s agenda until the return is realized.  Western Azerbaijanis who will return to their homeland should also be provided with security guarantees, the head of state added.

The Azerbaijani president noted that millions of Azerbaijanis were displaced from their homelands back then, Azerbaijani people were subjected to unprecedented hardships.

Ilham Aliyev said that this ethnic cleansing also served the heinous geopolitical goal of cutting off the overland connection of the main part of Azerbaijan with its integral part, Nakhchivan, by severing Western Zangezur from the rest of Azerbaijan.