BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 11. Armenia once again chooses same old tactics of slandering Azerbaijan and Türkiye on various international platforms and in the media, Parvin Mirzazade, Ambassador-at-Large of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, writes in his latest article, Trend reports.
"The second Karabakh war, which ended in Armenia’s defeat, put an end to the long-standing conflict and created conditions for the establishment of a zone of peace and security in the South Caucasus region. But, instead of accepting the reality and outstretched hand of Azerbaijan, Armenia continues to pretend to reject reconciliation, secretly hoping that by postponing a peace agreement, it can reverse history," he said.
As Mirzazade pointed out, such tactics did not find the expected response from the CSTO allies, who explained that all Armenia’s complaints against Azerbaijan are unfounded, since the border should be demarcated first. Yerevan then chose international organizations and foreign countries where the Armenian diaspora is strong, and where Islamophobia and Turkophobia often thrive.
"Now any meeting between Armenian officials and their foreign counterparts in bilateral and multilateral formats turns into spreading lies and misinformation, as well as slander against Azerbaijan. Moreover, Armenian media are constantly distorting the information about the meetings of Armenian officials with foreign representatives in their own interests, changing the essence and meaning of the negotiating text, thereby showing the Armenian people, that the international community supports Armenia’s "fair" position. In their reports on the meetings, the foreign partners allegedly use Armenian names of Azerbaijani settlements in support of Armenia," he noted.
"Meanwhile, the main voice of Armenian slander is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, headed by Ararat Mirzoyan. Armenian diplomats under his leadership use every opportunity to smear and complain against Azerbaijan, pointing to the "democratic" nature of the Armenian leadership, which is not above "human rights and humanism". It is interesting how selectively these principles can be combined in Armenian diplomacy, which for almost 30 years justified the occupation of Azerbaijani territories and the expulsion of almost 1 million Azerbaijanis," Mirzazade said.
"While on a working visit to Germany, Mirzoyan received an unexpected blow from his German colleague Annalena Baerbock. At a joint press conference, she directly pointed out that "the international border between Armenia and Azerbaijan is not delimited, and this provokes shootings. Without a clear border, peace is far away. Germany is ready to assist in the delimitation of the border," thereby putting an end to all his speculations and fables that Azerbaijani troops allegedly occupied part of the territory of Armenia," he noted.
As Mirzazade stressed, having achieved nothing in the diplomatic field and having no real military power, the Armenian leadership has recently been intensively discussing the deployment of some international forces in the region, on one hand, and, on the other, requiring an indefinite extension of the presence of Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh, without any moral or legal right to do so, since this is the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan and no international force can be there without the consent of the Azerbaijani authorities.
"Since Azerbaijan is strongly against these provocative proposals, all Armenian initiatives, therefore, are just bluff. No matter how hard the Armenian side tries, all its efforts are in vain. It would be better for the Armenian leadership to return to the negotiating table and take concrete steps to fulfill its obligations under the trilateral statements on the opening of new transport corridors and normalization of relations with neighboring countries. Instead of shedding tears over the blockade of Armenia, into which it plunged itself by starting a conflict with Azerbaijan back in 1988, the Armenian leadership should become wiser and, at least, begin design and survey work on the construction of a railway and a highway through Western Zangazur, since the Azerbaijani section of these roads in the direction of the border will be ready soon. Azerbaijan supports the creation of a zone of peace and cooperation in the South Caucasus, and the sooner Armenia abandons its intimidating diplomacy and starts thinking about peace, the better for the Armenian people and everyone in the region," he concluded.