Azernews.Az

BAKU – The Ukrainian government has responded to Azerbaijan’s protest over recent biased articles about the Nagorno Karabakh conflict published by a business magazine, according to the Azerbaijani embassy in Kiev.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry said the special edition of the Image magazine which reflected Armenia’s territorial claims against Azerbaijan and falsified the history of the occupied Nagorno Karabakh region is the Armenian ambassador’s "report to his government".

"The magazine’s special issue published for commercial purposes with the support of the Armenian embassy in Ukraine and with the cover page which indicates ‘the Armenian embassy in Ukraine’, clearly demonstrates that it is a kind of the Armenian ambassador’s report to his government," the Ukrainian foreign ministry told the Azerbaijani embassy.

"Ukraine’s official position repeatedly voiced by President Viktor Yanukovich dwells upon a peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh conflict within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan," the ministry said.

In its protest note, Baku had said the magazine articles are libelous and distort Azerbaijan’s history and territorial integrity, and publication of such stories is unacceptable.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a war over Nagorno Karabakh that emerged before the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory has been under Armenian occupation since the war. OSCE-brokered peace talks have been largely fruitless so far.