Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry: Yerevan ruining efforts of resolving Karabakh conflict peacefully

The Armenian leadership is greatly ruining the efforts to resolve the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict peacefully, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's press service said.

"The fact that the Armenian prime minister and the president congratulated the puppet separatist regime created by the aggressor Armenia on Azerbaijani territories, with the so-called "Independence Day" is a clear and undisguised recognition of the country's aggressive policy. The visit of the Armenian political leadership and the heads of its diplomatic missions to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and the surrounding territories shows that the aggressor country attempts to consolidate the status quo, based on the results of the policy of aggression with gross violation of the norms and principles of international law, which greatly ruins the efforts to resolve the conflict peacefully," the ministry said in a statement.

The Azerbaijani ministry noted that the recent completely groundless statements of the Armenian leadership and its steps are aimed at convincing itself and people of the "justification" of its illegal actions.

"Otherwise, how can one characterize the holding of a "holiday of independence" on a part of the internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan, the "independence" of which has not been recognized by any country and the occupation is condemned in numerous documents and resolutions adopted by the international community? Armenia, which is responsible for the military occupation of the internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan and the bloody ethnic cleansing of the local Azerbaijani population, as well as other crimes against humanity, must realize that these lands will return again to Azerbaijan. The joint peaceful coexistence of the two communities of the region in peace and security will be ensured on these lands," the statement reads.

"There is no other solution to the conflict. The mediators - the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and the entire world community understand this," the ministry concluded.