Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

The president of the Swiss National Council undermines the negotiations on settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s Spokesman Hikmat Hajiyev told Trend on February 7.

He commented on the statements, Dominique De Buman, President of the Swiss National Council, made in Yerevan. Hajiyev noted that De Buman, abusing his official status, makes biased statements contradicting Switzerland’s neutrality policy and harms the negotiations on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“De Buman’s statements in Yerevan, translated into an internationally accepted language, can be regarded as support for segregation and racism,” Hajiyev said.

The spokesman further reminded that in 2012, De Buman, violating the laws, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, illegally visited the Azerbaijani territories occupied by the Armenian armed forces.

“By this visit and current statements, he demonstrates justification of Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan, the occupation of Azerbaijan’s territory by the Armenian armed forces and the bloody ethnic cleansing committed in the occupied territories against more than one million Azerbaijanis," Hajiyev emphasized.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Until now, Armenia controls fifth part of Azerbaijan’s territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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