Azernews.Az

BAKU – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has accused Azerbaijan and Turkey of "defying European values", claiming that Armenia’s neighbors "have gone astray from the path of European integration".

"Not all countries in our region perceive the road of European integration being in concert with peaceful, free and safe development," he told a news conference with his Slovenian counterpart Danilo Turk in Ljubljana on Wednesday. "Our close neighbor [Azerbaijan], which sees our path to Europe in a distorted shape, deems the European region only as a lucrative oil and gas market. Our neighbor, which has stated its commitment to the path toward Europe, threatens us with shooting down civilian planes, makes bellicose statements on a daily basis and threatens with resolving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict militarily."

The conflict between the two South Caucasus republics emerged in the late 1980s due to Armenia’s territorial claims. Armenian troops have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, including the Nagorno Karabakh region, since a war in the early 1990s.

Sargsyan said that Turkey, another neighbor of Armenia, which is seeking European Union membership, is unwilling to reopen its border with the South Caucasus republic. "Don’t our neighbors know that free movement is key to the European set of values?"

Turkey and Armenia have been at odds for decades and their shared border has been shut since 1993 due to Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijani territory and Armenian claims on 1915 "genocide".

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry has responded harshly to the Armenian leader’s statement. The ministry’s spokesman, Elkhan Polukhov, said that Sargsyan "has no moral right" to make such statements.

"It is odd to hear such a statement from Armenian President Sargsyan -- a leader who has not just talked about, but actually ordered shooting down civilian flying objects -- and directly gave a go-ahead to the annihilation of civilian population and the Khojaly massacre [committed by Armenians against Azerbaijanis in 1992]. Armenia, sticking to its policy of using force against civilians, is a country that allows the killing of a nine-year-old boy."

Fariz Badalov was shot in the head by a sniper while playing in the courtyard on March 8.

Polukhov said Sargsyan’s speaking about a commitment on European path of development "looks strange, to say the least", considering the ongoing occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory by his country.

"European values do not envision occupation of one country’s territory by another or attempts to forcefully redraw the internationally recognized borders," Polukhov added.