Pashinyan cancels dialogue with Aliyev in Munich - sensational statement by Azerbaijan's ambassador to Germany

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declined a proposed meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Munich, as the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza reported, Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Germany Ramin Hasanov made the sensational statement at the symposium titled 'Stability and Security in the South Caucasus: Prospects for the German-Azerbaijani Partnership', which was held in Berlin yesterday. The event timed to the 27th anniversary of the Khojaly tragedy was organized by the German-Azerbaijani Forum, the Azerbaijani Embassy in Germany and the German Atlantic Society with the support of SOCAR.

By hosting this event, Berlin once again confirmed that the German authorities, including the ruling party, support the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and recognize the fact that Azerbaijani territories are occupied by Armenia. At present, speaker of the Armenian parliament Ararat Mirzoyan is paying an official visit to Germany - a symposium held in the German parliamentary society is creating an unfavorable background for him, stressing the need to abandon Yerevan's policy of maintaining the status quo in the conflict zone and move to constructive negotiations with Baku and the implementation of Madrid principles proposed to the parties by the OSCE Minsk Group.

In his speech, the ambassador noted that Baku attaches great importance to Germany's objective attitude towards the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "We hope that the support of Germany, as the leading EU country, will also help restore the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and encourage Armenia to give up its territorial claims. It's time for peace in Armenia now - the country has a new leadership that won the elections with promises to provide citizens with a good life and improve the situation. It can be done only through achieving peace with Azerbaijan. Populism can help to win the election, but not govern the country, so the Armenian leadership must finally stop its destructive rhetoric on the issue of conflict and take the issue of peace seriously - this is our invitation and call of people who have lost their loved ones, their homeland and their childhood in Khojaly and during the conflict," Ramin Hasanov stated.

"The Armenian leadership still prefers populism to serious negotiations. The Prime Minister of Armenia canceled the dialogue with the President of Azerbaijan during the panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference. It’s a pity, but we don’t give up hope. We hope for a constructive agreement of the Armenian side on the settlement principles developed by the OSCE Minsk Group - the Madrid Principles. These principles provide for the gradual resolution of the conflict, first of all, de-occupying the occupied territories, then returning internally displaced persons, establishing confidence-building measures and people-to-people contacts, and finally resolving the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, we are ready to provide it with the highest autonomy status within our territorial integrity. We maintain strategic patience and a constructive approach, despite our political, military, economic and international superiority," the Azerbaijani ambassador to Germany stressed.

He stressed that the German-Azerbaijani relations are recently on the rise. "Not least it happens thanks to Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to Azerbaijan last August, when she and President Ilham Aliyev held an open dialogue and resolved many issues of common interest. Azerbaijan is the most important economic partner of Germany in the region. The share of German-Azerbaijani trade turnover accounts for 70% of Germany's total trade with the South Caucasus countries. About 200 German companies operate in Azerbaijan. The German-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce has been opened in Baku since 2012, which is the second of its kind in the entire CIS space. A high-ranking German-Azerbaijani working group on trade and investment has been operating since 2011. These results are logical, since Azerbaijan is the most strong economic power in the region - it accounts for 70% of the total GDP of the South Caucasus. The country ranks 25th in the World Bank's Doing Business 2019 report, just one place behind Germany," Ramin Hasanov said.

"Azerbaijan ranks 8th among the largest oil suppliers to Germany and cooperates with German companies in the construction of the Southern Gas Corridor, which will start supplying Caspian gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz-2 gas field to Europe no later than 2020. There is also high potential for cooperation in the construction of the East-West, North-South and South-West transport routes. There is great mutual interest in deepening our economic relations, especially in such areas as renewable energy, agriculture, information technology and transport. The August meeting of Azerbaijani and German business circles in the presence of Angela Merkel and Ilham Aliyev has created a breeding ground for the implementation of common ideas and projects," Azerbaijan's ambassador to Germany said.

The symposium was also attended by head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev, chairman of the German-Azerbaijani Forum Hanns Eberhard Schleyer, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Germany Ramin Hasanov, director for Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia of the Ministry of foreign Affairs of Germany Michael Seibert, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy Thomas Bareiß, spokesman of the Social Democratic Party bloc for Foreign Affairs in the Bundestag Nils Schmid, Publicist Richard Kessler and Honorary Consul of Azerbaijan in Stuttgart Otto Hauser.