Azerbaijan slams Canadian foreign minister

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry has strongly criticized Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, accusing her of bias and ignoring crimes committed by Armenia against Azerbaijanis.

In a post on X, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Aykhan Hajizada said Joly's remarks align more with the interests of the Armenian National Committee of Canada than with Canada’s national interests or its credibility on the global stage.

“You never acknowledged the suffering of over one million Azerbaijanis who were subjected to ethnic cleansing, massacres, and cultural erasure,” Hajizada wrote.

He also defended Azerbaijan’s 2023 counter-terrorism operation, calling it a legitimate and proportionate response to the presence of illegal Armenian armed groups on Azerbaijani territory. The operation, he said, lasted less than 24 hours and adhered to international humanitarian law, targeting only military infrastructure.

Hajizada rejected claims that civilians were harmed or forced to flee, stating that Armenian residents left voluntarily.

(Reporting by N.Tebrizli)