Azernews.Az

BAKU – CIS Executive Committee chairman Sergei Lebedev’s recent statement on the Nagorno (Upper) Karabakh conflict made to the media in Baku has drawn fire from Armenia.

Armenia is particularly discontent with Lebedev’s term "occupied territories". The CIS chief has therefore sent a letter to Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian refuting his previous remarks, saying that the Azerbaijani journalists had distorted his words.

"I noted that the CIS Executive Committee is not involved in the negotiating process [on settling the Karabakh conflict], therefore, I am not aware of the gist of the negotiations and cannot speak to that end," the letter said. "I am formally informing you that the reports quoting me as saying that ‘we are discussing liberation of the occupied territories and the issue of creating corridors between Nakhchivan and Azerbaijan and between Karabakh and Armenia’ have no merit."

However, the recordings of Lebedev’s remarks made to reporters in Baku on Wednesday, posted on Azerbaijani media outlets’ websites, run counter to his refutation.

Armenia has had territorial claims against Azerbaijan, a South Caucasus neighbor, since the early 1990s. The country’s armed forces have been occupying over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, defying international law. The OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France, is brokering peace talks.