Azerbaijan not intended to discuss with Armenia or any third country matters of its territorial integrity – president’s assistant

BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 16. Azerbaijan will
not discuss with Armenia or any third country issues that question
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, Hikmet Hajiyev,
Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan – head of the Foreign
Policy Department of the Presidential Administration, said during
an interview with TASS, Trend reports.

“Attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of our state,
including pedaling the topic of creating some “international
mechanisms” for dialog between the central government of Azerbaijan
and the ethnic Armenian minority in Karabakh, are doomed to
failure. Karabakh is an internal issue of Azerbaijan, and any
attempts to dispute this are counterproductive from the perspective
of achieving sustainable peace in the region,” he said.

Hikmet Hajiyev noted that the peace process is currently being
hindered due to the unconstructive and insincere position of the
Armenian political leadership.

“Under the pretext of non-existent “blockade” of Lachin road, a
large-scale disinformation campaign has been unleashed against
Azerbaijan, which is coordinated by Yerevan and the Armenian
Diaspora in different countries of the world, especially in the
West,” said the official.

He also emphasized that despite Armenia’s attempts to accuse
Azerbaijan of blockading a part of its sovereign territory, the
opening of the Aghdam road for the cargo of the Russian Red Cross
Society on September 12 showed the invalidity of such accusations.
Thanks to the joint actions of the Russian Red Cross Society and
the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society, the Aghdam road has become
operational. Now Azerbaijan expects that also the cargoes of the
International Committee of the Red Cross will simultaneously go
along two routes – Aghdam and Lachin. Azerbaijan’s international
partners fully share and support this position.

According to Hajiyev, the main obstacle to the peace process now
is the fact that Armenia continues to maintain illegal regime on
the territory of Azerbaijan, backing it up.

“It is the illegal regime in Khankendi that blocks the
simultaneous opening of the Aghdam and Lachin routes, refuses to
accept food cargoes from Azerbaijan, justifying it with caveman
racist motives that have no place in the civilized world. The
illegal regime also torpedoes attempts of dialog between the
central government of Azerbaijan and the Armenian ethnic minority
living in Karabakh, despite Baku’s repeated invitations to such
contacts.

Hajiyev also added that Armenia’s policy of supporting the
illegal regime that has taken 30,000 of Azerbaijani citizens living
in Karabakh hostage must come to an end.

“There is no place for ‘gray zones’ in Azerbaijan,” he said.