BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 21
Trend:
Not a single country is involved in the [Karabakh] conflict on our side, there are no terrorists on our side as well, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in an interview to the Russian TASS news agency, Trend reports.
"As for the opposite side, the Armenian side, we have conveyed to Russia our concerns that during the active phase of the confrontation a huge amount of weapons has been transferred from Russian cities to the territory of Armenia. We have data, we have flight maps, we have the listing of weapons. All this was brought to the attention of the Russian side," said the president.
“This, of course, raises a lot of questions. If necessary, we can also publish a list of supplies Armenia has received from the territory of Russia during this time, specify what transport vehicles were used to deliver them, and which airlines delivered them. These were mostly illegal supplies," he said.
"We have officially applied to ICAO. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan has appealed to ICAO. We have provided information about the transport of certain companies. In fact, there have also been media reports that lethal weapons are being delivered to Armenia under the guise of humanitarian cargo and cargo of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Since both Georgia and Iran have closed their airspace for military cargo, such smuggling methods are used," he said.
"We suggested to the Russian side that this was being done by means of smuggling because it is hard for us to believe that Russia, a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group and a country that must maintain neutrality, just like France and the United States, is arming the Armenian side during the active phase of the conflict. According to our information, big Russian entrepreneurs of Armenian origin are involved in this. Well-known arms dealers who are under international sanctions are also involved," he said.
"Our appeal to the Russian side was, among other things, aimed at sorting out this issue. Because if Russian weapons are smuggled and paid for in cash, then we need to figure out how this can be possible. These are the concerns we have, and our concerns are based on facts,” the head of state said.