Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10
Trend:
A letter of Azerbaijani ambassador to Argentina Mammad Ahmadzade was published in this country's Clarin newspaper May 8, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry told Trend.
This letter came as a response to the article titled "A trip to the unknown Nagorno-Karabakh country" published in this newspaper. The author of this material, the editor of the International Politics Department of the Clarin newspaper, Marcelo Kantelmi, known for his ardent pro-Armenian position, also earlier visited the Azerbaijani lands occupied by Armenia.
Although materials on history, political and legal aspects of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, as well as the illegality of trips to Azerbaijan's occupied lands without the consent of Azerbaijani government have been repeatedly published in this newspaper, Kantelmi illegally visited these territories again and violated the Azerbaijani law and the principles of the international law, said the diplomat in his letter.
Kantelmi's remarks in his article that currently, Azerbaijanis do not live in the mentioned region, Armenians have turned the mosque in Shusha into ruins, clearly prove that Armenia has committed military aggression against Azerbaijan, ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis and that the "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic" is a puppet regime created by Armenian to cover up its military aggression, said the letter by Ahmadzade.
Kantelmi's answers with which he tried to justify his illegal visit to Azerbaijan's occupied lands were included in this letter.
In response, Azerbaijani ambassador sent the next letter to the Clarin newspaper and made a statement for the press on behalf of the embassy.
The statement for the press is available through the following links http://azembassy.org.ar/noticias/pr/20150508042137434.html and http://azembassy.org.ar/articles.php?sec_id=33&item_id=20150509041430839 (in Spanish and Azerbaijani languages, respectively).
Following this, the news agency of Armenian community in Argentina, "Prensa Armenia" stood up for Kantelmi and protested the measures taken by Azerbaijani embassy in Argentina following the recent illegal visit of Argentinean media representatives to Azerbaijan's occupied lands, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.