By  Trend

Armenian ex-president Robert Kocharyan, who is in prison, wants to play the "Karabakh card" again to conceal his dirty deeds, Azerbaijani MP Rauf Aliyev told Trend on Feb. 21.

“Being in prison, Kocharyan spread a statement on Karabakh, where he accused the new Armenian government of dealing a blow to the fundamentals of the separatist regime,” he said.

The MP stressed that Kocharyan and his assistants played a major role in the occupation of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven adjacent districts, and in the Khojaly genocide.

Aliyev stressed that by making such statements, Kocharyan seeks to get support in the Armenian society, evade the criminal case filed against him.

The MP stressed that the policy of the Azerbaijani leadership on the peaceful settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, based on the norms of international law, raises hopes that negotiations on the settlement of the conflict will bring results.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.