Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that Baku's arms purchase from Belarus has caused "psychotic episodes" in Armenia. Baku and Yerevan are locked in the protracted dispute over breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh.
"We purchase military hardware from Belarus and are very pleased with its quality and characteristics. The Belarus military industry also performs at a very high level and we intend to continue cooperation in the military-technical sphere. But as you know that causes, let me call it, psychotic episodes in Armenia, which is very surprising because Azerbaijan does not only buy weapons from Belarus. Russia is the biggest arms supplier of Azerbaijan. We buy large amounts of ammunition and hardware from Turkey, Israel, Pakistan and European countries too. Therefore, it is surprising that they have reservations exclusively about Belarus," President Aliyev said in Russian at a meeting with the Belarusian ambassador in Baku. The video of the meeting was posted on the website of the state-owned AzarTAC news agency on 14 November.
Aliyev went on to say that Armenia has "inferiority complex" to Belarus which has managed to develop successfully over the past two decades despite Western sanctions imposed against it. In contrast, he said, Armenia is "one of the poorest countries in the world" which caused its people to overthrow "the government which had exploited and robbed its own people for 20 years".
The president said that Baku has watched the recent developments within the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) which both Armenia and Belarus belong to. He said that Baku was concerned that a representative of Armenia headed the CSTO.
"Armenia is the country which has occupied Azerbaijan's territories and naturally it cannot but concern us which country heads the CSTO, which is a military-political organisation. It is natural that these issues are discussed between partners and friends," Aliyev said.
He called "inappropriate" the Armenian foreign ministry commentary on Belarus President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's (Alexander Lukashenko) remarks about Armenia's chairmanship of the CSTO.
"We consider the recent statements by the Armenian Foreign Ministry as being absolutely inadmissible in international practice. A foreign ministry cannot comment on the deeds or remarks made by a foreign country's president, especially of a country considered to be an ally, and call them inappropriate. Inappropriate is this behaviour by the Armenian Foreign Ministry which allows itself to engage in antics of this sort. Probably, that is because they do not perceive the world and themselves on the world map very correctly. Simultaneously, as you know, the Armenian side said that there were problems within the CSTO. Surely they are right about that. These problems are Armenia itself and problems which it created," Aliyev said.
He recalled that the CSTO head Yuri Khachaturov was dismissed after criminal charges were brought against him in Armenia and said that "the appointment of this individual to an important international organisation like the CSTO discredited the organisation to some extent".
President Aliyev praised Azerbaijani-Belarusian relations as "unshakable". "As to our relations – they are unshakable. They have a solid foundation based on ties of friendship, mutual respect and support, and are oriented to the future," he said.
He added that his forthcoming official visit to Belarus would further strengthen bilateral relations. No date of the visit was announced yet.