Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14
Trend:
The visit of Armenian President Armen Sargsyan to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, including the Kalbajar region, is a provocation and serves to aggravate the existing situation, the head of the press service of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Hikmet Hajiyev told Trend June 14.
He noted that it proves once again that the talks of the Armenian leadership about peace or cooperation are nothing but hypocrisy and an attempt to deceive the international community.
"The Armenian leadership on the day of visit of co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group by its provocative and destructive steps, including unsubstantiated claims for the participation of the separatist regime in the negotiations clearly shows that Armenia is not interested in resolving the conflict through negotiations, demonstrates that it is pursuing a policy of annexation of Azerbaijani territories by maintaining the status quo and military aggression. This policy, which continues to be pursued by the Armenian leadership, seriously threatens regional peace and security. We reiterate that Armenia is fully responsible for the current situation," Hajiyev 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.