FM spokesman: Armenia continues to violate international law

By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

Armenia continues to grossly violate the requirements of international humanitarian law, particularly the Geneva Convention.

Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry announced about this while talking to Trend on January 5.

Hajiyev said that despite the repeated calls, Armenia has not yet returned the body of Azerbaijani serviceman Chingiz Gurbanov, who was killed while preventing the Armenian provocation.

A reconnaissance group of the Armenian Armed Forces tried to violate the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border on December 29 morning. The Armenian group found itself in the ambush of the Azerbaijani army while violating the borders. The enemy was forced to retreat, suffering losses, according to the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

During the fighting, a serviceman of Azerbaijani Armed Forces Chingiz Gurbanov went missing.

The spokesman further said that the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, together with other relevant structures of the country, has sent a corresponding appeal to international organizations.

“Armenia disregards the international organizations’ appeals to return the body of the Azerbaijani serviceman, and thus continues to demonstrate its inhuman nature,” he added.

Hajiyev is sure that the recent provocation has once again showed that the current political regime in Yerevan is a threat to security in the region. “The main objective of that regime is to prevent the peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” he added.

The spokesman stressed that Armenia stands behind the provocations on the Azerbaijan-Armenia border.

Hajiyev added that Armenia, by trying to involve the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in the incident, is posing a serious threat to regional peace and security and is causing serious damage to the peace efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group.

“Despite the appeals made by a number of judicious individuals in the Armenian social, political and diaspora circles, who stand for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the military and political leadership in Yerevan is trying by any means to slow down the negotiation process,” Hajiyev added.

“The recent statements made by Armenian Foreign Ministry and other structures in the country testify that Armenia continues its aggressive policy in the region. The essence of this policy is to continue the aggression against Azerbaijan and preserve the status quo.”

Previously, the spokesperson named the latest military provocation staged by Armenia on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border as the next dangerous adventure of Yerevan.

Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.

Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.

Peace talks mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. have produced no results so far.