Details added (first version posted on 10:52)
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 31
Trend:
Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides’s statement on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict contradicts Cyprus’s obligations to international law and the Helsinki Final Act, encourages the policy of aggression and occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, said.
Hajiyev was commenting on Kasoulides’s statement made at a meeting with Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan.
Hajiyev said that the thoughts voiced by Kasoulides also ruin the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs’ peaceful efforts on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement and sustainable peace in the region.
“These statements are also incompatible with the positions of the EU, the OSCE and the Council of Europe, where Cyprus is a member,” Hajiyev said.
"The Cypriot foreign minister refutes himself by making such contradictory statements,” he said. “While addressing the OSCE Permanent Council as chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe January 26, 2017, the Cypriot foreign minister stated that Cyprus supports the territorial integrity, sovereignty and the political independence of countries.”
He also added that the military cooperation between Cyprus and Armenia raises certain questions and suspicions.
Hajiyev expressed hope that the issue will be considered by the EU and the OSCE.