Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responds to Armenian PM’s statement

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry responds to Armenian PM’s statement
# 07 June 2018 11:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku considers the statements recently made by the Armenian leadership a non-constructive step aimed at undermining the negotiation process on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and maintaining the occupation-based status quo, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's spokesman Hikmet Hajiyev told APA on June 7.

Hajiyev commented on the recent statement of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who addressing the Armenian Parliament on June 7, claimed that the negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict cannot be effective without participation of the separatist regime.

Armenian military presence in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and the ongoing occupation define direct international legal responsibility of Armenia as a party to the conflict, the spokesman noted.

“If the Armenian leadership is concerned by the reached agreements remaining on paper, then they must fulfill the requirements of the UN Security Council’s relevant resolutions, which call for an immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying troops from Azerbaijani territories,” Hajiyev said. “We would like to remind the new Armenian leadership that the civil status of the Armenian community of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region has not changed, either. Along with the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh, they continue to be the citizens of Azerbaijan.”

Recent processes once again demonstrate that the Armenian community of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region is under the captivity of an organized criminal group and mafia structure, the spokesman emphasized.

Hajiyev went on to say that Azerbaijan has more than once openly and unequivocally expressed its position on the negotiation process.

“Azerbaijan is ready to continue talks on the basis of the existing format and agenda with the aim of finding an early solution to the conflict and ensuring sustainable peace and security in the region. The aim of the talks is to ensure the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories and the return to their native lands of Azerbaijani IDPs subjected to ethnic cleansing,” he said.

Yerevan must understand that holding negotiations with occupant Armenia for over 25 years is Azerbaijan's biggest compromise, Hajiyev added.

Addressing a special parliamentary session on Thursday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the negations on resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict cannot be effective without the participation of the separatist regime.

“Before coming to Armenia Robert Kocharyan was the elected “president” of Karabakh, and Serzh Sargsyan was one of the organizers of the “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s” self-defense movement. Therefore, they could have had the mandate of negotiating on behalf of Karabakh. But I can’t do the same. I can’t attribute the right of negotiating on behalf of Karabakh to me even in case of the greatest desire, because there are no legal, political and moral grounds for it. The people of Karabakh do not take part in elections in Armenia, instead they have their own government, and they can be represented only by a representative having the lawful and legitimate grounds of doing so,” Pashinyan said.

Nagorno Garabagh

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