Armenian President's visit to the occupied Kelbajar serves to aggravate situation
By Rashid Shirinov
The visit of Armenian President Armen Sargsyan to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, including the Kalbajar region, is a provocation and serves to aggravate the situation, head of the press service of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Hikmat Hajiyev told Trend on June 13.
He noted that it proves once again that the talks of the Armenian leadership about peace or cooperation are nothing but hypocrisy and an attempt to deceive the international community.
“On the day of visit of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, the Armenian leadership by its provocative and destructive steps, including unsubstantiated claims for the participation of the separatist regime in the negotiations, clearly showed that Armenia is not interested in resolving the conflict through negotiations, demonstrated that it is pursuing a policy of annexation of Azerbaijani territories by maintaining the status quo and military aggression,” Hajiyev stressed.
The spokesman added that this policy, which the Armenian leadership continues to pursue, seriously threatens regional peace and security.
“We reiterate that Armenia is fully responsible for the current situation,” Hajiyev noted.
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.
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.
Until now, 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
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