Embassy: Tehran’s position on territorial integrity of Azerbaijan unchanged
By Rashid Shirinov
The stance of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan remains unchanged, the Iranian Embassy in Baku told APA on March 29.
Embassy spokesperson Mohammad Reza Najafi, commenting on reports that Iranian musicians gave a concert in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region occupied by Armenia, said that no official musical group from Iran went on a trip to the occupied territories during the Novruz holiday.
Earlier, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfas Garayev told reporters that Azerbaijan sent a letter of protest to the Iranian side over the issue.
Mohammad Reza Najafi said that unreliable, sometimes distorted reports that are released by a third country’s media are aimed at spoiling relations between Iran and Azerbaijan and direct the public opinion to negative directions.
“We’ve seen it many times, unfortunately. We condemn any attempt of this kind,” the spokesperson said.
Azerbaijan pays special attention to the illegal activity in the occupied areas of the country. Unauthorized visits to Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied regions of Azerbaijan are considered illegal and individuals who pay such visits are included in the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s “black list”.
Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.
Large-scale hostilities ended with a ceasefire agreement in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal. Peace talks mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. have produced no results so far.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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