Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend I.Alizade / Azerbaijan accuses the Government of Armenia of pursuing propaganda to misrepresent the peace talks on Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict attempting to mislead both domestic and international public on the substance of the talks.
"After the OSCE Madrid Ministerial, the Armenian Government officials started aggressively pursuing propaganda to misrepresent the peace talks on Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh conflict attempting to mislead both domestic and international public on the substance of the talks. We believe that the propaganda of the Armenian officials will be the next alarm about the veritable intentions of the Government," Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry's Press Secretary, Khazar Ibrahim, briefed the media on 19 December.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.
According to Ibrahim, it is a clear indication of a pre-election hysteria to delude the Armenian people, nevertheless, requiring clear response and clarifications to avoid any misinterpretations.
"The talks are built on the clear stance of the full restoration of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and sovereignty over the all occupied Azerbaijani territories and return of the ethnically cleansed by the Armenian state displaced people to their lands of origin, including Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan does not negotiate its territorial integrity and never will," Ibrahim said.
"At the same time, Azerbaijan has always demonstrated its very good will through the search of every opportunity to find a peaceful solution for the conflict and we do not believe that diplomatic options are exhausted," he said.
According to Ibrahim, Armenia, on the contrary, through continued military aggression demonstrates its unchanged policy of the use of force, which is intolerable. "The UN Charter article 51 gives a full right of self-defense if an armed attack occurs, while we see a paradox when aggressor state Armenia surpasses a victim of aggression Azerbaijan in military expenditures as percentage of GDP: 4.3 vs. 3.8. Besides, Armenia has heavily militarized separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh," he said.
Azerbaijan values the position of international community, which has unequivocally supported territorial integrity of Azerbaijan through adoption of resolutions, statements, decisions both on the State and international organization levels, and we strongly believe that propaganda by Armenian officials will ring another alarm bell on the real intentions of the Government of Armenia.