Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 18

By Seba Aghayeva – Trend:

During his tenure as Armenian foreign minister, Edward Nalbandian has done nothing other than harming the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s Spokesman Hikmat Hajiyev told Trend.

He was commenting on Nalbandian’s recent anti-Azerbaijan statements.

“From the first day of joining the negotiation process, that person [Nalbandian] felt incompetent and uninvolved. That person distinguished himself only by tautological, baseless and senseless accusations,” Hajiyev said.

He noted that the Armenian FM has no moral right to make any claims regarding the conflict settlement, while Armenia, as part of its aggressive and occupation policy against Azerbaijan, committed bloody ethnic cleansing against more than a million of Azerbaijanis, including such crime against humanity as the Khojaly genocide.

“We would like to remind to the Armenian foreign minister that the Khojaly tragedy was committed with the direct participation of the current political and military leadership of Armenia,” said Hajiyev.

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.