Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5
By Seba Agayeva – Trend:
Azerbaijan has brought its position to Russia’s attention concerning the Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement about the situation with the entry of Russian citizens with Armenian surnames to Azerbaijan, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, told reporters in Baku July 5.
He added that Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement on visa-free regime.
“The Russian Foreign Ministry has been notified today that twenty percent of the Azerbaijani territories were occupied and ethnic cleansing was carried out,” Hajiyev said.
“Some people are carrying out instigatory activity on ethnic grounds,” Hajiyev said, adding that in this regard some restrictions were made for visiting Azerbaijan.
"We hope that such restrictions will be lifted and citizens will be able to freely move after the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is resolved," he said.
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 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.