Azernews.Az

By Aisha Jabbarova

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva has said that Azerbaijan needs no outside force to ensure its territorial integrity within its international borders.

Abdullayeva made the remarks on October 1 while commenting on Armenian smear campaign alleging that militants from Syria being deployed to Azerbaijan to help Azerbaijan in the ongoing clashes with Armenia.

Abdullayeva said that Armenia is behind these allegations, which are not based on any facts and are spread in the form of interviews with fictitious people.

The spokesperson said that this smear campaign by Armenian is an attempt to compensate for the negative international public opinion created by Armenia's recent relocation, in a demonstrative way, of representatives of terrorist organizations from the Middle East to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, which is a gross violation of international humanitarian law.

“There are numerous facts on the use of terrorist groups and mercenaries in military operations during the occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions of Azerbaijan by Armenia. At present, the Armenian leadership continues this policy and widely uses extremist elements against Azerbaijan as part of its new act of aggression. Thus, Armenia's plan to create "voluntary militant groups" to be used for military purposes is aimed at using the "services" of terrorists who have been moved to Armenia from the Middle East for years,” Abdullayeva said.

Abdullayeva said that unlike Armenia, which has been, over the years, experiencing a severe demographic crisis and as a result of which it has not able to equip its armed forces, Azerbaijan has fully-fledged armed forces, and these armed forces are so professional and strong that no external forces, especially irregular groups, are needed to achieve the set goal.

“These bogus claims are incompatible from a military-technical point of view, as they lack simple logic. Various sources claim that several hundred mercenaries were allegedly brought to Azerbaijan. Then such a question arises; In the context of a possible clash of two regular armies, can a small number of irregular groups change the balance of forces? Of course, those who spread misinformation are not able to answer this question,” Abdullayeva stressed.

The Foreign Ministry issued another statement earlier today, saying that Armenia involved terrorists and mercenaries from foreign countries, especially from the Middle East, during the occupation of Azerbaijani lands, as well as in the following acts of aggression against Azerbaijan.

Armenian armed forces launched a large-scale operation in the front-line zone on September 27 at 6 am, shelling the positions of the Azerbaijani army from large-calibre weapons, mortars, and artillery installations of various calibres.

Azerbaijan launched a counter-offensive operation along the entire front to suppress the combat activity of the Armenian armed forces and ensure the safety of the civilian population. Azerbaijan liberated Garakhanbeyli, Garvend, Kend Horadiz, Yukhari Abdulrahmanli villages of Fizuli district, Boyuk Marjanli, and Nuzgar villages of Jabrayil district as well as strategically-important Murov height and destroyed the positions of the Armenian armed forces in the direction of the Agdere district and Murovdag.

Overall, 18 Azerbaijani civilians have been killed and 58 have been injured in Armenian attacks on Azerbaijan’s civilian infrastructure since September 27. Among the killed civilians are three children as well as five members of the same family.

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