US State Dept. wants to spoil Azerbaijan’s int’l image – top official

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.18

Trend:

The US Department of State wants to spoil Azerbaijan's image on the international arena by making groundless statements, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan, head of the Administration's Foreign Relations Department Novruz Mammadov said in his interview with AzerTAg news agency on Oct.17.

He was commenting on the statement made by the US Department of State's spokesperson on Azerbaijan on Oct.15.

"Unfortunately, the US Department of State's spokesperson has made a number of groundless, false statements about Azerbaijan recently," Mammadov said. "This appears to be a more acceptable way of interfering into a country's internal affairs and exerting pressure on it."

He said it would be better for the Department of State, which claims to act under the banner of the rule of law, to make a statement on the situation and rights of a million Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs, which have been deprived of all their rights for more than 20 years, instead of financially and morally assisting aggressor Armenia and the separatist regime of the Nagorno-Karabakh over the years.

The top official added that the Department of State would be better making fair statements on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict under an international legal framework that the country itself created.

"But the United States disregards such important issues, and thinks that raising the issues of human rights and freedoms whenever it wants is solely its international responsibility, while the Department of State wants to cast shadow - through its spokesperson - on Azerbaijan's cooperation with the European Union and the US, and spoil Azerbaijan's international image."