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By Trend

The Armenian Foreign Ministry is making a fraudulent attempt to distort the international public opinion on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Peter M. Tase, strategic adviser on international affairs and public diplomacy to governments, universities and corporations in Europe and the Americas, told Trend.

The fact that Armenian high ranking officials are recently issuing controversial statements is nothing new in their ill-intentioned strategy towards continuing with the occupation of sovereign territory of Azerbaijan and causing more harm to regional economic and tourism prospects in the Caucasus, Tase noted.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia is making a fraudulent attempt to distort the international public opinion by pretending that in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan there are elected officials,” the US expert said. “What we really have in occupied territories of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic of Azerbaijan, is simply an illegitimate autocratic puppet regime that is installed by Armenian government.”

Armenian government is making another futile attempt to show to international community and the OSCE that local-medieval rulers in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, are trustworthy elected officials, Tase added.

“The fundamental challenge is that Armenian government has committed crimes against humanity in sovereign territory of Azerbaijan,” said the expert. “The Armenian local authorities in occupied territories of Azerbaijan are not legitimate, are the authors of animosity and unlimited hostilities that are incongruent to principal democratic processes and to effective public policies, government transparency.”

“The statements made by Minister Mnatsakanyan are a ruthless crime against the democratic principles of consolidated societies and reflect the stereotypes of Armenian government that are grossly harming the regional security matrix in the outskirts of Europe,” Tase noted.

Armenian leadership is not transparent and strives to maintain the current status-quo, said the expert, adding that it is time for Armenian troops to go home.

“Azerbaijan is keen, deeply committed, to solve this conflict by peaceful means and has made every effort to secure a full integrity of its sovereign territories under the framework of UN Security Council and the principals of international public law,” Tase added.

In turn, Nathalie Goulet, French senator and vice-chair of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told Trend that the dissemination of such statements contrary to international law is a sign of a misunderstanding of history and a fraud.

“I believe that the OSCE Minsk Group should pay attention to the formulations used in this issue in order to avoid misunderstanding and mistrust,” Goulet 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, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions.

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 Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

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