Azerbaijan, Baku, November 18 / Trend, S. Agayeva /
The speech of Armenian President Serge Sargsyan again causes regret and, frankly speaking, if the Armenian leadership were wiser the country would not have been in such sad economic position and would not have suffered such a demographic crisis, Elman Abdullayev, Press Secretary of the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, told Trend on Friday.
"It should be mentioned once again that world countries, particularly, foreign companies regard Azerbaijan as a global-scale partner. Today, Azerbaijan receives relatively serious backing from the international community. An evident illustration of this is that the country has been elected a UN Security Council member state after it gave the upper hand in such difficult group as the Eastern European one, withstood 17 rounds, and eventually joined the prominent international body's Security Council," Abdullayev commented on the speech of Armenian President Serge Sargsyan.
As reported by Armenian media, the President of Armenia told international conference entitled "Change of Regional Security in the South Caucasus" that the armaments drive committed by Azerbaijan is a circumstance alarming not only Armenia or the South Caucasus but also the region in a broader sense.
Abdullayev said the Armenian President once again misleads the international community and shamelessly deceives his nation through manipulating Azerbaijan's military budget.
"It should be mentioned that Armenia spends the bigger part of its budget for military purposes, an indication that the country is getting militarized," the Ministry's official noted.
As for Azerbaijan, 20 percent of whose territory is under Armenian occupation, the strengthening of the country's defense capability seems quite natural, he said.
"Evidently, the position of Sargsyan remains permanently destructive and aims to preserve status-quo and artificial delay of resolution of the conflict," Abdullayev said.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.