Hikmat Hajiyev: Armenia attracts funds for its army by mobilizing Armenian diaspora operating under guise of NGOs and charity organizations abroad

“In order to compensate the huge losses on the battlefield, Armenia attracts funds (We are our borders – All for Artsakh” donation campaign, Armenia Fund, Armenian General Benevolent Union, Armenian Canadian Medical Association of Ontario, Fund for Armenian Relief, Tufenkian Foundation, Armenian Relief Society), for its army by mobilizing the Armenian diaspora operating under the guise of NGOs and charity organizations abroad,” Assistant to the Azerbaijani President, Head of Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmat Hajiyev told journalists.

Hikmat Hajiyev said: “The funds raised through NGOs and charity organizations run by the Armenian diaspora are directed to finance the Armenian army serving in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, thus contribute to carrying out further attacks by Armenia on the Azerbaijani civilian population. The social media and network posts made by Armenians living abroad prove this.

It is not for the first time that Armenian diaspora abroad uses the funds obtained through NGOs and charity organizations for the illegal activity and increasing the aggression in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, as well as purchasing weapons and ammunition for the occupant army. The Armenian diaspora has carried out active work in this regard and deceived taxpayer of the relevant foreign states over the past 30 years. The illegal funds had been transferred to the so-called regime established in Azerbaijan’s occupied lands without any control mechanism, which means financing terrorism.

According to the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, as well as provisions of the UN Security Council resolutions 1373 (2001), 2178 (2014), 2195 (2014) and 2347 (2017), activities of non-profit organizations in the abovementioned areas are assessed as the financing of terrorism and the states must take preventive measures to avoid such cases. In this regard, Azerbaijan calls on the UN member states to prevent the use of their territories for financing Armenian terrorism directed against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country.”