U.S. Department of State aims to spoil Azerbaijan’s image
By Sara Rajabova
Azerbaijan's top official has said the U.S. Department of State wants to spoil Azerbaijan's image on the international arena by making groundless statements.
Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan, head of the Administration's Foreign Relations Department Novruz Mammadov made the remark in his interview with AzerTAg news agency commenting on the statement made by the U.S Department of State's spokesperson on Azerbaijan on October 15.
"Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of State's spokesperson has made a number of groundless, false statements about Azerbaijan recently," Mammadov said, adding that this appears to be a more acceptable way of interfering into a country's internal affairs and exerting pressure on it.
He said it would be better for the Department of State, which claims to act under the banner of the rule of law, to make a statement on the situation and rights of a million Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs, which have been deprived of all their rights for more than 20 years, instead of financially and morally assisting aggressor Armenia and the separatist regime of the Nagorno-Karabakh over the years.
Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that had caused a lengthy war in the early 1990s.
Mammadov further said the Department of State would be better making fair statements on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict under an international legal framework that the country itself created.
"But the United States disregards such important issues, and thinks that raising the issues of human rights and freedoms whenever it wants is solely its international responsibility, while the Department of State wants to cast shadow - through its spokesperson - on Azerbaijan's cooperation with the European Union and the U.S., and spoil Azerbaijan's international image," Mammadov said.
Earlier, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry criticized the U.S. Department of State for statement on human rights situation in Azerbaijan.