All occupied territories of Azerbaijan, including Gubadly, will be liberated and local Azerbaijanis will return to their homes, Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has said.

Bayramov made the remarks in a post shared on his Twitter page on Augsut 31 that marks the anniversary of the occupation of Gubadly by Armenian forces.

“27 years without Gubadly. The district occupied on 31 August 1993 by armed forces of Armenia, and Azerbaijani population were ethnically cleansed. All occupied territories of Azerbaijan, including Gubadly, will be liberated and local Azerbaijanis will return to their homes!”, Bayramov’s post reads.

It should be noted that as a result of the occupation, 238 Gubadli residents were killed, 316 were become to be disabled persons and more than 100 people were missing as a result of the occupation, adding that the administrative centre and 93 villages of the region were completely destroyed and looted, over 40,000 Gubadli residents became internally displaced persons.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Group’s efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

ISLAMABAD, AUG 31 (DNA) – Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi took to Twitter on Monday to greet the government and the people of Malaysia on the country’s Independence Day.

“Selamat Hari Merdeka to the Government and the people of Malaysia,” he wrote on his official social media account. FM Qureshi said, “Pakistan looks forward to forging closer cooperation in the days to come and to strengthening the relationship between our two countries.”

Prime Minister Imran Khan had paid a two-day official visit to Malaysia earlier this year, during which the two countries signed a number of pacts to enhance bilateral cooperation and trade in various fields.

The prime minister and his then Malaysian counterpart Mahathir Mohamad had also agreed to build a strong economic partnership and work together on issues affecting the Muslim Ummah. =DNA

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ISLAMABAD, AUG 31 –  President Arif Alvi has that Pakistan is keen to strengthen its bilateral relations with Azerbaijan in the fields of tourism, trade, defence, and energy.

Talking to the newly appointed ambassador for Azerbaijan at Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad on Monday, the president said that Pakistan gives utmost importance to its relations with Azerbaijan.

The president said that Pakistan and Azerbaijan enjoy deep economic, political, military, and cultural ties and urged upon the envoy to play a role in enhancing bilateral trade volume.

Dr. Arif Alvi expressed gratitude to the government of Azerbaijan on supporting Pakistan during the Coronavirus pandemic, particularly the repatriation of 522 stranded Pakistanis.

President Arif Alvi also stressed the regular holding of high-level bilateral meetings between Pakistan and Azerbaijan to explore the potential in diverse areas to their mutual benefit.

The president hoped that the Bilal Hayee as Pakistan’s new ambassador to Azerbaijan would contribute to further strengthening of the relationship between the two Countries.

On August 31, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev visited the Shahidlar Khotirasi (Memory of Victims) square. Surahs from the Quran were recited in memory of the victims of repression. A conversation took place with representatives of the older generation, the religious sphere and the creative intelligentsia.

“Remembrance of patriots, reciting the Quran in memory of them is a good tradition. We know that our enlightened ancestors fought for the independence, freedom of our people. In recent years, through the efforts of our entire community, a lot of work has been carried out to restore their good name, replenish museums and organize creative schools. All this is done in order to bring historical justice and truth to people, so that our people know and never forget about the past, appreciate the present peaceful life”, said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.As is known, thousands of our innocent compatriots were subjected to repression during the totalitarian regime. In 1937-1953, 100 thousand people were repressed in Uzbekistan, 13 thousand were mercilessly shot. Many families were destroyed and children were left orphans. In 1937-1938 alone, when the repression acquired the widest scale, about 7 thousand of our fellow citizens were shot.“These people were real leaders, leading representatives of the intelligentsia, the best writers and cultural figures – in a word, the color of our nation. Imagine what great deeds they would have done in the name of development of the Motherland, science, economy, culture and literature, what a breakthrough our people would have made if they had not been repressed! Today we remember this loss with sorrow”, the President said.

The Head of the state instructed to conduct research on each of the 100 thousand repressed, find out their history by meeting with their relatives, publish books about their activities, perpetuate their memory, naming mahallas and schools after them.In recent years, monuments and museums have been created in honor of such enlighteners as Iskhokhon Ibrat, Mahmudkhoja Behbudi, Abdulla Avloni, Abdulhamid Chulpan, Abdulla Qadiri. Creativity schools are organized. Branches of the Museum of Memory of Repression Victims have been opened in the Republic of Karakalpakstan and all regions. New books are being written, films are being shot, and research is being conducted on victims of repression.The coronavirus pandemic has not spared Uzbekistan either. Unfortunately, this disease claimed the lives of more than three hundred of our compatriots.During the ceremony, surahs from the Quran were recited in memory of those who died from the disease. A prayer was read wishing a speedy recovery to the infected.“I express my deep condolences, I wish strength and patience to all families who have lost their loved ones. I ask the Almighty for the healing of the sick. We have been fighting this scourge for six months now. We pray that this virus quickly disappeared from our country”, the Head of the state said.