Azerbaijan's territorial integrity is key in solving Karabakh conflict

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Leyla Abdullayeva has slammed the Armenian Defence Minister’s recent statement that Nagrono-Karabakh problem has allegedly been resolved.

“Against the background of efforts being undertaken for many years with the participation of international mediators to resolve the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, such statement by the defense minister of the aggressor country can only be regarded as a product of sick imagination,” Abdullayeva said in a statement published in the ministry’s official website on October 29.

Armenian Defence Minister David Tonoyan made his controversial statement on October 27 while responding  to a reporter’s question on how he sees the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“What else can be expected from the defense minister of the country that glorifies fascism, carries out ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Azerbaijani population living in the Azerbaijani territories that it has occupied?” Abdullayeva said.

She recalled Armenia’s national hero, pro-Nazi activist of the WW 2 era, Garegin Nzhdeh, who was later sent to GULAG prison camp. “Garegin Nzhdeh also believed that the issue had been resolved. Everyone knows how he ended up,” Abdullayeva said.

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict “will be resolved only after fully ensuring the principles of international law and restoring justice, as well as after restoring Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, as required by the international community,” the spokesperson concluded.

Earlier, in March 2019, Tonoyan threatened to capture more Azerbaijani territories in case the war resumed between the two South Caucasus countries. It should be noted that Armenia has step up belligerent rhetoric against Azerbaijan since Nikol Pashinyan assumed power in 2018. Pashinyan has made a number of controversial statements. In August 2019, he called for unification of Karabakh with Armenia, an unprecedented statement that undermines the two-decade-long peace process.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region along with seven adjacent districts came under control of Armenian forces during the war in early 1990s. The occupation displaced around one million Azerbaijanis that were expelled from their homes as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by representatives from Russia, U.S. and France has been brokering the peace negotiations since 1994.