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Azerbaijani MFA: Armenia's speaking of peace is clear hypocrisy [UPDATE]

16 February 2018 15:57 (UTC+04:00)
Azerbaijani MFA: Armenia's speaking of peace is clear hypocrisy [UPDATE]

By Rashid Shirinov

The ongoing occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia by using the military force remains the major threat to regional peace and security, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's Spokesman Hikmat Hajiyev told Trend on February 16.

He made the remarks commenting on the views about the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the annual "Worldwide Threat Assessment" report of the U.S. Intelligence Community.

Hajiyev noted that Armenia's speaking about peace - in the context of the Armenian armed occupation of Azerbaijani lands, continuation of illegal actions in the occupied territories and attempts of annexation of the lands - is a clear hypocrisy, irresponsibility and frivolous approach.

"The OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries have repeatedly stated at the level of heads of state that the existing status quo is unacceptable and unstable," the spokesman said.

He added that to replace the occupation-based status quo, Armenian armed forces should be fully and unconditionally withdrawn from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, as required by the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, and ultimately, the military risk factor for the political solution to the conflict should be eliminated.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region 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. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

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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