Azernews.Az

By Trend

Baku announced that repeated expression of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s attitude towards the issue of the entry of Russian citizens of Armenian origin to Azerbaijan in the form that is beyond diplomatic ethics is very strange and incomprehensible.

Russia’s hostile attitude does not in any case suit the relations of strategic nature between the countries, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry stated on July 6.

“Over the past 25 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, this issue has never been on the agenda. It is difficult to explain the extraordinary activity of the Russian side at this time.”

Based on its national interests and safety considerations, Azerbaijan itself decides on the entry of nationals of other states into its territory, reads the statement.

Russia, as the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair, knows that Armenia occupied 20 percent of the Azerbaijani territories and more than one million Azerbaijanis became refugees and IDPs, the statement said.

The statement also mentions the July 4 shelling of the Alkhanly village in Azerbaijan’s Fuzuli district by Armenia, which killed and injured civilians.

“Russia is one of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and we expect that the Russian Federation, on the basis of its commitments, will step up efforts to resolve the [Nagorno-Karabakh] conflict and the Armenian armed forces will be withdrawn from the occupied territories. As a result, peace and stability will be established in the region. Only after this, conditions will be created for free movement.”

Earlier, Ministry’s spokesman Hikmat Hajiyev said that Azerbaijan has brought its position to Russia’s attention concerning the Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement about the situation with the entry of Russian citizens with Armenian surnames to Azerbaijan 5.

“The Russian Foreign Ministry has been notified today that twenty percent of the Azerbaijani territories were occupied and ethnic cleansing was carried out,” Hajiyev said.

“Some people are carrying out instigatory activity on ethnic grounds,” Hajiyev said, adding that in this regard some restrictions were made for visiting Azerbaijan.

"We hope that such restrictions will be lifted and citizens will be able to freely move after the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is resolved," he said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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