Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizada has rejected recent remarks by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova regarding the former Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, saying that Russia has always recognised the Garabagh region as an integral part of Azerbaijan.
Zakharova said on July 27 during her remarks at the “Gvardeysk” youth forum that although Armenia had called for the activation of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) mechanism, the question was “against whom and in relation to what.” She argued that “Nagorno-Karabakh” had not been recognised by Armenia either as its own territory or as an independent entity, and therefore the CSTO’s collective security mechanism could not be invoked.
Commenting on Zakharova’s remarks, Hajizada noted that the statements regarding the former Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict were “a distortion of reality.”
“The Garabagh region has always been recognised by the international community, including the Russian Federation, as an integral part of Azerbaijan,” Hajizada said.
“Therefore, attempts to continuously keep on the agenda the issue of applying CSTO mechanisms to the sovereign territories of Azerbaijan, which had been under Armenia’s occupation for nearly 30 years, and to associate this with whether or not the Garabagh region had been recognized by Armenia, are not only entirely groundless but also contradict Russia’s own official position regarding Azerbaijan’s Garabagh region,” the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson added.
Hajizada stressed that Azerbaijan had restored its territorial integrity and sovereignty in accordance with international law, thereby resolving the former conflict.
The spokesman further emphasised that Baku considered it inappropriate to involve Azerbaijan in discussions related to Moscow-Yerevan relations.
“In this context, the practice of commenting on issues pertaining to Russia-Armenia relations by associating it with Azerbaijan should be ended,” he concluded.
By Jeyhun Aghazada
