No:234/20, Head of the Press Service Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan answers the question of the media on the interview of the Armenian Foreign Minister to the “Interfax” Agency.
Question: In an interview to “Interfax”, Armenian Foreign Minister Z. Mnatsakanyan spoke about issues related to the conflict resolution process and stressed the importance of showing political will. What can you say about this?
Answer: It is ironic for the foreign minister of a country to talk about creating an atmosphere of peace in the region, that has been occupying the internationally recognized territories of the neighbouring country for almost 30 years in violation of fundamental principles of international law, as well as directly impeding settlement of the conflict through negotiations, and serving to increase tensions in the region with its actions and statements.
The steps taken by the Armenian military-political leadership undermining the essence of the talks are a major obstacle to the creation of the "atmosphere conducive to peace" mentioned by this country’s Foreign Minister.
Only the actions of the Armenian side over the past one and a half month, clearly shows the provocative nature of this country.
On July 12-16 of this year, carrying out another military provocation in the direction of the Tovuz region of the border between the two countries, Armenia attempted for another pre-planned attack on the Azerbaijani positions. An attempt for a new act of aggression and use of force by Armenia was resolutely prevented by the Azerbaijani Army.
After the horrific explosion in the Lebanese city of Beirut, Armenia, which wanted to use the situation in this country for its own nefarious purposes, announced a plan to illegally settle ethnic Armenians from Lebanon in the occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan. With this, the occupying state - Armenia did not hide its intention to strengthen the results of the ethnic cleansing carried out in the captured Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions of Azerbaijan.
After being unsuccessful in the Tovuz provocation, the Armenian military-political leadership resorted to other provocations to compensate for the failure of this military adventure. On August 23, a sabotage-reconnaissance group of the Armenian armed forces was prevented from provoking an attempt on the line of contact between the Azerbaijani and Armenian armed forces in the direction of the Goranboy region of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the group's leader was neutralized.
Finally, Armenian Prime Minister N.Pashinyan's visit to the occupied city of Khankendi of our country on August 29, meeting with "representatives" of the puppet regime established there, and visiting Armenian military units in the currently occupied territories of Azerbaijan obviously demonstrated once again that Armenia is an aggressor state and it pursues an annexation policy.
After all this, I wonder what kind of peace, or what proposals and initiatives to reduce tensions in the region Z.Mnatsakanyan is talking about?
The reasons for the vandalism and hate crimes committed against Azerbaijanis in various countries by the representatives of a country that supports terrorism at the state level, and where the younger generation was brought up on the basis of the racist ideology of "Njdeism" and the values of fascism, are well known to all. Therefore, these views of the Armenian Minister correlating the prevention of ethnic conflict in foreign countries with the demonstration of political will in resolving the conflict are nonsense. Because Armenia has not been able to demonstrate this political will for years.
In order to ensure sustainable peace in the region, withdrawal of the Armenian occupying forces from the internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan and restoration of the rights of the displaced people of these lands are imperative. Armenia must finally show political will and take concrete steps in this direction.
