Spokesman for Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry: The Armenian leadership must find the courage to recognize the occupation of a part of the territory of Azerbaijan

"The Armenian leadership must find the courage and be able to clearly and openly say who is the occupier, whose territory had been captured, and whose armies committed the ethnic cleansing", said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Elkhan Poluhov, according to Interfax-Azerbaijan.

"Of course, all these questions have a definite answer: all of this was carried out by Armenia", he added.

In this regard, the diplomat state that allegations of Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian that "Azerbaijan took a destructive approach| in the Karabakh settlement, which is allegedly manifested in the refusal of the Madrid proposals of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group in 2007,  are groundless.

"This statement by the head of the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the latest attempt by the Armenian side to move away from the essence of the matter", noted A. Poluhov.

"Only after the Armenian side withdraws its forces from occupied Azerbaijani territories and creates conditions for the return of refugees and internally displaced persons, who will be able to coexist with the Armenian community of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azerbaijani side can proceed to the next phase, that is a discussion of the legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In the meantime, the position of the Armenian leadership is the demonstration of the destructive approach, and political rhetoric, which is not fitting the case", said the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan.

E. Poluhov also expressed surprise at the statement by E. Nalbandyan that during the war in Karabakh, Azerbaijan used "the ethnic cleansing, moving further to launch a large-scale aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh, involving militants, associated with terrorist organizations to this".

"The statements voiced by the side, which is still practicing both external and internal terror can not be taken seriously. The Armenian leadership has used terrorist methods in all times, throughout the entire period of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, not only against Azerbaijan, but also against their own political establishment", concluded the Azeri diplomat.