Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend S.Ilhamgizi / The commencement of the Azerbaijani week in Armenia is a hasty and premature step, Abulfas Garayev, the Azerbaijani Minister for Culture and Tourism, stated. The Armenia has kept under it's the control, the Azerbaijani territory, and the bilateral relations with the occupant country in the culture sector is not possible. "However, it does not mean that we do not hold the exchange of the opinions with the Armenian Minister, in the meetings with the Armenian culture minister during the international events. We talk and it is obvious, because we are the members of an international family," Garayev said.
The minister said that the key objective of Armenians in holding the Azerbaijani Week is to demonstrate the imaginary peaceable ness. The commencement of such events in Armenia and the participation of Azerbaijanis there, is not right, Garayev said.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to the Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, the Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven neighboring districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement which ended the active hostilities. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding the peaceful negotiations.