Distortion of Russian Foreign Ministry representative’s remarks is incomprehensible
Trend:
Distortion of the remarks made by Russian Foreign Ministry representative is incomprehensible, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hikmet Hajiyev told Trend.
His comments came in response to the changes in the transcript of the speech by Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Artem Kozhin.
"As a press secretary of the foreign policy department, I can not understand the reason for the change in the semantic-linguistic way of the professional and diplomatic response of my Russian colleague, which corresponds to the real essence of the negotiation process for the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This is unimaginable and incomprehensible. The video presented by Trend agency clearly shows that the statement was made in the context of the Armenian prime minister’s remarks about participation of the separatist regime as a side in the negotiations and this step of the Armenian leadership is called nonconstructive. And in the transcript of the press conference posted on the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, it is written that this is the answer to the question of Trend’s reporter," he said.
Hajiyev added that the assertions of the new government of Armenia about participation in the negotiation process of the separatist regime created in the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia are absolutely unfounded, ridiculous and nonconstructive.
"Armenia is responsible as a state that has occupied the territory of Azerbaijan by force and preserves its military presence in the occupied territories," Hajiyev said.
Hajiyev noted that the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group themselves stated about the groundlessness of this position of Armenia at a meeting with Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov on May 15 in Paris.
"As can be seen, the new leadership of Armenia, instead of working towards resolving the conflict on the basis of the accepted existing format, with such unreasonable statements tries to disrupt or paralyze the negotiation process," he stressed.
It should be noted that at a press conference on June 1, Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Artem Kozhin, responding to a question of Trend, said that the statements of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are nonconstructive.
"In general, loud statements that do not fit onto the appropriate rails, in particular laid by the OSCE, are probably not constructive," 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.