Armenian Foreign Ministry makes statements reminiscent of Sargsyan's era
By Rashid Shirinov
Armenian Foreign Ministry makes statements reminiscent of the era of the country’s former President Serzh Sargsyan, Spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Hikmat Hajiyev said in his article published in EURACTIV journal on July 5.
“It is regrettable that the recent statements by the Armenian Foreign Ministry do not provide any constructive view on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict and development of the region,” he said, noting that in its statements the ministry only makes unfounded allegations against neighboring countries without offering a vision for the future.
Hajiyev also noted that the Armenian side by all means is trying to omit the issue of occupation and military aggression, which constitute the fundamental basis of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, in which Armenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions of Azerbaijan by use of force.
“More than one million Azerbaijani civilians in the occupied territories have been subjected to bloody ethnic cleansing. As a result of this policy based on territorial expansion, Armenia has become a self-isolated country,” the spokesman said, adding that as a small land-locked country, Armenia needs integration with its neighbors more than anyone else.
Hajiyev also stressed that when the inevitable political crisis happened in Armenia, Azerbaijan stated that if the new government of Armenia pursues reasonable policies, it would be possible to make progress in resolving the conflict. However, so far it seems that the new authorities of Armenia will tread the path of the previous regime.
“The Armenian leadership has to understand that attempts to violate the internationally recognized borders of states and acquire territories by use of force are inadmissible,” the spokesman mentioned.
He added that the attempts to maintain the status-quo of occupation and annexation of Azerbaijan’s sovereign lands can never produce the desired political outcome and can in no way be considered legitimate by the international community.
Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan by laying territorial claims on the country. Since a war in the early 1990s, 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.
To this day, Armenia has not implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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