Hajiyev: Armenia at PM’s level insults, crushes int’l norms and principles

Azerbaijan categorically rejects Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s statement "Karabakh is Armenia" made during his illegal visit to Khankendi city, Head of the Department of Foreign Policy Affairs of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev said.

Hajiyev was commenting on Pashinyan’s statement, Trend reports on Aug. 6.

"Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijan’s historical land and its integral part,” he said. "The international community recognizes and supports territorial integrity, including Nagorno-Karabakh, and the sovereignty of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan and its people will never reconcile with the violation of the territorial integrity of our country as a result of the occupation and bloody ethnic cleansing committed by Armenia and will not allow the accession of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.”

"Pashinyan’s statements that the occupied Azerbaijani territories are Armenia and his calls for the joining of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia openly demonstrate again that Armenia’s real goal is the occupation,” Hajiyev said. "The calls for accession of the occupied Azerbaijani territories to Armenia must be regarded as irresponsibility and disrespect for the international community and, in particular, for the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, who are responsible for the settlement of the conflict via negotiations.”

"Armenia at the prime minister’s level insults and crushes international norms and principles, the UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act and completely destroys the negotiation process on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, being conducted through the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs,” he said. "Afterwards, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group must answer the question regarding the future negotiation process.”

"By making this statement, the Armenian prime minister refutes his own words and recognizes that his recent statements that he 'cannot speak on behalf of Nagorno-Karabakh' are nothing but absurdity and lies,” Hajiyev said. "Thus, the Armenian leadership openly proves that its participation in the negotiations is only hypocrisy and misleading the international community.”

"We would like to assure the Armenian leadership that the attempts of adding the occupied Azerbaijani territories to Armenia are only a fantasy and these attempts are as utopian as the goals for Armenia’s development until 2050,” he said. "By this destructive and provocative statement, the Armenian side again puts the region face to face with danger and risk and deliberately escalates the situation to distract attention from internal problems.”

"Armenia is responsible for the current situation,” Hajiyev said. "Let no one doubt that Azerbaijan will provide territorial integrity and sovereignty within internationally recognized borders and ensure the return of its citizens, subjected to ethnic cleansing, to their native lands.”