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Baku protests to unrecognized regime’s joining Olympiad in Iran

16 September 2016 14:35 (UTC+04:00)
Baku protests to unrecognized regime’s joining Olympiad in Iran

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan’s embassy in Iran will express official Baku’s position to Tehran regarding the participation of representatives of the unrecognized regime created on Azerbaijan’s occupied lands in the Olympiad in Tehran.

Hikmet Hajiyev, spokesman for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, made the statement in an interview to Trend on September 16.

Tehran hosted the opening of the 48th Armenian Olympiad which was attended by representatives of the unrecognized regime created on Azerbaijani lands occupied by Armenia.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry has been informed about the incident and Azerbaijan’s embassy in Iran will express the position of the Ministry to Iran’s relevant structures, Hajiyev noted.

“I would like to note that Iran has always supported Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty and advocated for the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with the UN Security Council’s resolutions,” he added.

Meanwhile, Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mohsen Pak Ayeen the Olympics held by Armenians living in Iran is an internal event, and it is carried out in deference to the religious minorities.

“Iran considers inappropriate to use sport for political purposes,” he told Trend on September 16. “Iran's position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has not changed, and the participation of Iranian officials in this event is a sign of respect for religious minorities.”

Pak Ayeen also noted that the organizing committee has invited representatives of Georgia and Armenia as participants to the event, and no other country or region was represented in the Olympics.

Participation of a representative of any country in sportswear with coat of arms or symbols of another side was not agreed with the organizing committee of the event, he added.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the 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.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.

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

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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