Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 19
Trend:
The U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent statement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is absolutely unacceptable, said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in an interview with head of the Russian news agency Rossiya Segodnya Dmitry Kiselyov for Sputnik.
The president was responding to Kiselyov’s question regarding Kerry’s recent statement on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution.
“This is a diplomatic mishap, and our Foreign Ministry and I have already responded to this inappropriate statement,” he said.
Ilham Aliyev reminded that recently, on October 7, he has quite clearly expressed his opinion on the statement during a Cabinet of Ministers meeting.
“I said it is at least unfair to put blame on Azerbaijan for the conflict not being resolved,” said the president. “The statement is absolutely contrary to the position of the U.S. President Obama, together with other presidents – of France and of Russia – has said that the status-quo is unacceptable. But now the U.S. secretary of state declares that he sees no settlement, and moreover he says that solving this conflict is even harder than solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”
“What kind of signal is he sending, and to whom? Is he sending a signal to Armenia that they should protract this conflict as many years as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has lasted? This is absolutely unacceptable statement,” said the president.
He added that this statement once again shows why the conflict is still not solved.
“Because there are decisions, resolutions of international organizations, but they are not executed. There is no pressure on the aggressor country, on the contrary, often there is a policy of encouraging the aggressor, something well-known in the history of the 20th century – not of the same scale, but roughly of the same essence,” said Ilham Aliyev.
“This is the problem we are facing. We are being told: the peaceful way, only the peaceful way, nothing but the peaceful way. We say very well, let’s settle this, because eventually it is unfair, aside from violating all the international laws, to occupy another state’s territory and drive out the population, and keep the occupied territories under control,” President Aliyev added.
He said it is no secret today that Azerbaijan’s army has a serious potential to solve many issues.
“We are told the peaceful way, we say very well then, we are waiting. And instead of the pressure on the aggressor we hear such statements,” added the president.