Details added (first version posted on 12:54)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.9
By Seba Aghayeva - Trend:
Armenia attempts to use the international tourism exhibition in Rimini, Italy for political purposes to popularize the separatist regime created in Azerbaijan's occupied territories, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry told Trend Oct.9.
Azerbaijan's embassy in Italy took all measures to prevent the participation of the separatist regime of Nagorno-Karabakh in the international tourism exhibition in Rimini (Oct.8-10) with a separate stand, said the ministry.
Being deprived of all opportunities to present the separatist regime in the exhibition, Armenia confined itself to demonstrating Armenian brochures related to the regime created in the occupied Azerbaijani lands, according to Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry.
The embassy continues to maintain contact with Italy's Foreign Ministry and the organizers of the exhibition to prevent the attempts of the Armenian side to turn the tourism exhibition into an object of political provocations, said the ministry.
Armenia's attempts to turn the international tourism exhibition into an object of political provocations, popularization of the regime established in Azerbaijan's occupied lands, as well as presenting these lands as Armenian territories once again shows that Yerevan's participation in the negotiations on resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an imitation, according to the Foreign Ministry.
The true purpose of this country is to maintain the status quo on the occupied lands, to annex them and attempts to hinder the conflict's settlement through negotiations by staging such provocations, said the ministry.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
Edited by SI
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