President Ilham Aliyev has stated that Armenia implemented a policy of "urbicide" during the 1990s, noting that no sanctions were imposed against the country for these actions.
According to the Operative Information Center-OMM, President Ilham Aliyev made these remarks during the opening ceremony of the Islamic Development Bank Group's 2026 Annual Meetings held in Baku. The head of state emphasized that the occupation of Azerbaijani territories in the early 1990s triggered a severe humanitarian catastrophe. "There were nearly one million refugees and internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan. At that time, the country's population was approximately 8 million. This meant that one in every eight people was a refugee or internally displaced person. They lost their homes and faced severe social problems," he said.
President Ilham Aliyev further highlighted that Armenia committed war crimes, including the Khojaly genocide, and systematically destroyed cities and villages across the occupied territories. He pointed out that despite the scale of this humanitarian crisis, the international community failed to impose sanctions on Armenia at the time. The President contrasted this with modern international practices, describing the lack of action during the occupation as a clear example of double standards in international relations and a contradiction between declared values and realpolitik.
