BAKU, April 23. /TASS/. Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that the decision to establish a checkpoint on the Lachin corridor was legitimate and slammed Armenia’s statement on this matter as an attempt to meddle in its domestic affairs.
"The Armenian foreign ministry’s statement is yet another attempt to interfere into Azerbaijan’s domestic affairs and its is unacceptable. <…> The Azerbaijani’s side’s legitimate decision to establish a border checkpoint in its territory is in conformity with all principles and norms of international law," it said in a statement.
The ministry said that Yerevan’s accusations that Baku has violated its commitments under the trilateral statement are ungrounded. "Under the trilateral statement, Azerbaijan undertook to guarantee safe movement of people, vehicles and cargoes along the road linking Lachin and Khankendi (known as Stepanakert in Armenia). This commitment includes measures to prevent abuses of the Lachin road. Apart from that, the establishment of a checkpoint at the beginning of the road introduces no changes into the traffic regime," it stressed.
Baku also lambasted Yerevan’s statements that the establishment of the checkpoint is geared to launch "ethnic purges" as groundless and absurd. "We state once again that there are all the conditions for transparent, safe and orderly movement of Armenian residents of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region via this checkpoint in both directions," the ministry stressed.
According to the ministry, the statement by the foreign ministry of Armenia, "which boycotted peace talks, indicates its intentions to use this as a pretext to undermine efforts toward the resumption of talks."
"We recommend the Armenian side drop such provocations, demonstrate a responsible approach to the efforts toward building its relations with Azerbaijan on the principles of territorial integrity and sovereignty of states, instead of using various pretext to hamper peace talks," it stressed.