Armenia continues to encroach de facto on Azerbaijan's territorial integrity

In an interview with Radio Liberty, Elchin Amirbayov, representative of the Azerbaijani president for special assignments, said that by fomenting another myth about an impending threat from Azerbaijan, Armenia is still de facto encroaching on Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, Azernews reports.

An article by RFE/RL correspondent Joshua Kuchera on the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan notes that due to the resulting lack of trust between the sides in various mediators, Baku and Iravan have recently favoured the format of bilateral direct contacts, which have already begun to bear concrete fruit.

In particular, reference is made to the agreement reached by the sides last December on the release of detainees from both sides and mutual diplomatic support in the context of the COP29 international climate conference planned in Baku.

"Armenia and Azerbaijan are mature enough and can solve the remaining problems between them, and the work in this direction is proceeding at its own pace," Elchin Amirbayov stressed against the background of the popular opinion that as a result of intrusive interference of major players from outside, the peace agreement risks turning into a theater of geopolitical rivalry between the two opposing blocs.

In this context, the President's representative called "complete nonsense" the recent statement by the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, in which he pointed to Azerbaijan's territorial claims against Armenia and called on Baku to return to substantive negotiations with Iravan.

"Accusations against Azerbaijan about our alleged territorial claims to Armenia are nothing but an unsuccessful and useless attempt to shift the blame from a sick head to a healthy one. It is enough to look at the current Constitution of Armenia and its reference to the declaration of independence of this country, which enshrines an arbitrary and illegitimate decision on the so-called "reunification of the Armenian SSR with Nagorno-Karabakh"," Elchin Amirbekov noted.

"There are a lot of such concrete facts, take at least the reservations adopted by the Armenian parliament in the process of ratification of Armenia's accession to the CIS, questioning Karabakh's belonging to Azerbaijan, or the numerous lawsuits launched by Armenia against Azerbaijan after the end of the 44-day war, the documents to which contain unconcealed territorial claims to Azerbaijan.

I am not talking about the official website of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, which still presents the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan as an integral part of historical Armenia.

We have repeatedly brought all our above-mentioned concerns to the attention of the Armenian side, but, unfortunately, no concrete actions aimed at their elimination have been taken by them so far. The deliberate spreading of ridiculous rumours about the impending Azerbaijani threat, while maintaining territorial claims against Azerbaijan, is not only a trick but also a path to nowhere," concluded the Presidential Representative for Special Assignments.