Azerbaijan rejects Armenian claims against President Aliyev

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Azerbaijan on Sunday rejected a recent claim by Armenia and said it "distorts the views" expressed by President Ilham Aliyev during a meeting he held with a group of intellectuals from western Azerbaijan.

“The Armenian Foreign Ministry's claim that Azerbaijan is not interested in peace and stability in the region and violates international law is nothing but hypocrisy,” a statement by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said.

The statement also said that the claim that Azerbaijan is violating agreements made in Prague and Sochi and is hindering the peace process between the two countries is “unfounded,” adding that Armenia “does not abandon its territorial claims against Azerbaijan and continues its intervention against the sovereignty of Azerbaijan.”

“The fact that Armenia put forward conditions preventing the meeting between the leaders in Brussels in December, as well as the refusal of the foreign ministers to attend the Moscow meeting on Dec. 23, clearly demonstrates which side is hindering the peace process,” it added.

On Saturday, Aliyev noted western Azerbaijan as “our historical land,” which he said was “confirmed by a number of historical documents, historical maps and our history itself,” according to a report by state news agency Azertac.

According to the report, Aliyev also said that Armenians razed all historical and religious monuments in the region to the ground, "as they did in Karabakh,” adding: “They wanted to erase the historical heritage of the Azerbaijani people, but they could not achieve their goals. Because there is history, there are documents and there are maps.”