Armenia should be blamed for its isolation

By Sara Rajabova

The occupational policy pursued by Yerevan isolates the Armenian people from the regional ties.

Arastu Habibbayli, Head of the External Relations Sector of Azerbaijan's Presidential Administration Arastu Habibbayli, made the remark at an international conference entitled 'Relations between Azerbaijan and Central Asia: development, cooperation and common challenges' on October 8.

He said Armenia's occupational policy remains the main factor violating the stability in the region.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by U.S., Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far. As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.

Talking about the significance of relations between Azerbaijan and Central Asian countries, Habibbayli said the Central Asia connects Azerbaijan with the East, while Azerbaijan provides access of the Central Asian countries to the West.

"Both regions are of great importance from the geopolitical point of view. The two regions have fruitful cooperation in the spheres of energy and transport and great potential for the further collaboration," he said.

The conference organized and held under the initiative of the CSS was attended by the representatives of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Turkey.

Issues like 'Regional geopolitics and common challenges: political cooperation and the fight against common threats', 'Regional geo-economics and cooperation: trade, energy and transport' and others were discussed at the conference

/AzerNews/