Azerbaijani ambassador responds to Armenian ambassador through “The Prince Arthur Herald” newspaper

“The Prince Arthur Herald” has issued the Letter from the Ambassador of Azerbaijan in which Azerbaijani ambassador to Canada Farid Shafiyev responds to the Armenian ambassador`s allegations over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The letter reads: “Dear Editor, I am writing to you regarding the interview with Ambassador Yeganian of Armenia that was published on the pages of “The Prince Arthur Herald” on May 2, 2014.

The interview aims at distorting the reality by willfully spreading false information about the nature of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Quite contrary to what the Armenian Ambassador attempted to portray, this conflict is all about groundless territorial claims and aggression of Armenia against its neighbour Azerbaijan. Four UN Security Council Resolutions adopted in 1993 leave no doubts as to the nature of the conflict. These resolutions demanded the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying forces from all the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and reconfirmed the respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of my country.

Armenia, under the cover of human rights and self-determination, has been pursuing an irredentist policy aimed at recreating “the Greater Armenia”, and the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, along with seven adjacent regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan is part of this policy. An act of aggression against Azerbaijan has also been accompanied by ethnic cleansing and appalling war crimes, including the massacre in Khojaly committed by the Armenian armed forces.

Regretfully, the principled Security Council demands have still not been implemented, and the mediation efforts conducted for more than 20 years within the framework of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have yet to yield results.

Last but not least, Ambassador Yeganian’s claims about Nagorno-Karabakh’s underdevelopment is far from reality, as in fact, economic and social development of the Nagorno-Karabakh region had been much better in comparison with those of the other parts of Azerbaijan which are attested by the official statistical data of Soviet authorities.

I do hope that for the sake of the key journalist principles such as objectivity and fairness, my comments will be published in your newspaper.”


/AzerTAc/