Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry official has blamed Armenia for attempts to preserve the status quo.

Hikmet Hajiyev, Head of the Press Service of Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said Armenia, escalating situation by means of purposeful sabotages, pursues a policy of harming the negotiation process and aims to preserve the status quo, which emerged due to aggression and occupation.

“Armenia, which is reigned by political, economic, demographic and social crisis, through such actions aims at diverting the attention of the country’s public from internal problems,” he told Trend Agency on January 12.

Hajiyev further noted that the escalation of tension and the casualties along the line of contact of Armenian and Azerbaijani troops is caused by the Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan and the presence of its armed forces in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

He said Armenia must first of all withdraw its troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan for a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

“In order to put an end to Armenia’s destructive policy and purposeful provocative actions, to ensure the Armenian troops’ withdrawal from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, it is needed to seriously consider taking coercive measures against Armenia, including sanctions, which are stipulated by the UN Charter,” Hajiyev said.

Hajiyev’s remarks came as spokesman for Armenia’s Defense Ministry, Artsrun Hovhannisyan said on his Facebook page that in accordance with international humanitarian rules, on January 11, the Armenian armed forces allegedly allowed Azerbaijan to take the corpse of an Azerbaijani “saboteur”, who was killed during “diversionary attacks” in the direction of Tavush region.

Colonel Vagif Dergahli, Head of the Press Service of Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said earlier that the information spread by the Armenian side on losses allegedly suffered by Azerbaijan’s armed forces along the line of contact of troops, the Armenians’ alleged permission to take the corpse of an Azerbaijani, as well as the Azerbaijani servicemen’s alleged killing of an Armenian shepherd, are absolute lies.

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 caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by U.S, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.

The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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