Azerbaijan accuses Armenia of 'misleading' international community on territorial disputes

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Allegations by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan about territorial claims in Azerbaijan's constitution "have no ground and are misleading the international community," the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

Pashinyan on Wednesday alleged that Azerbaijani constitution lays claims to Armenian territory.

"This allegation is a futile balancing act and an attempt to overlook/ignore the claims towards the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan," Aykhan Hajizada said on X.

Hajizada said the constitution of Azerbaijan does not contain any claim to lands of neighboring countries. But Armenia's body of laws aims for a “reunification of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh,” an Azerbaijani region, and calls some territories of Türkiye as “Western Armenia.”

The spokesman said Armenia's legislations demonstrate that it has never recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.

"Therefore, statements that Armenia recognizes the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan have no legal ground until Armenia makes changes to its Constitution and renounces all the legal and political acts that reflect its claim to Azerbaijan," he stressed.

Relations between the Southern Caucasus countries have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Most of the territory was liberated by Azerbaijan during the war in the fall of 2020, which ended after a Russian-brokered peace agreement opened the door to ongoing normalization and demarcation talks.

Azerbaijan established full sovereignty in Karabakh in September 2023.