Presidential aide: Armenia carefully planned provocation on border

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan’s presidential aide Hikmat Hajiyev has said that the recent cross-border violence on the Azerbaijani- Armenian border was a carefully planned provocation by the Armenian side and is just a continuation of military aggression against Azerbaijan. He also said that the entire responsibility for the cross-border violence lies with Armenia.

Hikmat Hajiyev said during the TV debate with his Armenian counterpart Zohrab Mnatsakanian hosted by Al Jazeera International TV channel on July 15.

Hajiyev stated that Armenia hides its military losses and the leadership of that country will have to account to its public for the real losses, as a result of this military gamble.

Hajiyev refuted Mnatsakanian claims that Yerevan was interested in peace, by stressing that Armenia has occupied the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding seven regions of Azerbaijan through aggression, as a result of which more than 1 million Azerbaijanis living in those territories have been ethnically cleansed and displaces from their homes. He also stressed that Armenia bore international legal responsibility for the military aggression against Azerbaijan.

Furthermore, Hajiyev stated that this provocation is connected with a couple of reasons:

- Armenia wants to avoid the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and responsibility for this conflict;

-by provocation, Armenia wants to create a new center of tension in the region and exposes the region to new threats;

-in an effort to involve the Collective Security Treaty Organization in the conflict, Armenia is trying to play a dirty and irresponsible political game;

-Armenia seeks to damage the East-West transport corridor, the regional transport projects outside of which they stayed ;

-Armenia's leadership is also trying to distract attention from the acute social and economic problems observed in the context of the widespread COVID-19 pandemic.

Additionally, Hajiyev said that with statement “Karabakh is Armenia, and that’s the point”, Armenian leadership clearly demonstrates the policy of annexation of a part of the territories of Azerbaijan, and undermines the format and the very essence of the negotiation process, which is conducted through the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. This is above all disrespect to the Co-Chair countries.

The cross-border fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan started on July 12 with Armenia's firing artillery at Azerbaijan's positions in the direction of Tovuz region.

On the night leading to July 14, five Azerbaijani servicemen, including a major general and colonel, were killed during the Armenian attack on the border.

In three days of fighting, the Azerbaijani army lost 11 officers and soldiers. One civilian was killed as a result of artillery fire by the Armenian armed forces.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. However, final peace deal has not been reached yet. 

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