Azeri MP links truce violations to international pressure on Armenia

Space TV, Baku
6 Apr 05

[Presenter] The reason for the [recent] frequent truce violations
is the difficult political situation in Armenia, because the
international community has lately stepped up pressure on Armenia,
the deputy speaker of the Azerbaijani parliament has said.

[Deputy Speaker Ziyafat Asgarov] At present, Armenia and the Armenian
leadership are in such a situation that it is time for them to have
their final say. They have to sit at the negotiating table and have
their final say. I believe that they are trying to avoid having their
say and deliberately violating the cease-fire to give the international
community the impression that stability is being disrupted. If you
remember, [Armenian Defence Minister] Serzh Sarkisyan had blamed this
on us.

They are trying to give international organizations the impression that
Azerbaijan is allegedly breaking the peace talks and cease-fire and
that’s why they cannot say anything specific about this issue. But in
fact, I think that Armenian politicians and the Armenian leadership
have reached deadlock, which is why they resort to such provocation
and violate the cease-fire on the border. But I would like to say that
sooner or later, they’ll have to sit at the negotiating table because,
I think, the international community has lately stepped up pressure
on them, because all norms and principles of international law are
on Azerbaijan’s side, all the organizations of the world have already
realized that Armenia is really an aggressor, it has occupied 20 per
cent of Azerbaijan’s territory and there are more than 1m refugees
in Azerbaijan. It is necessary to put an end to this.