Spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva commented on a telephone conversation between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Arsenal's midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryanin, according to which, the football player could not take part in the UEFA Europa League final due to the racist position of Baku.
Abdullayeva stressed that the politicization of the sport by Pashinyan is an attempt to conceal the internal problems with such steps.
"The head of a mono-ethnic state like Armenia, which occupied the territories of neighboring Azerbaijan and carried out violent ethnic cleansing in these territories, committed a bloody genocide in Khojaly, has no right to talk about racism. It does not fit into any moral," she said.
"We remind the Prime Minister of Armenia that despite the fact that our lands are under the occupation of the Armenian armed forces, tens of thousands of Armenians live in Azerbaijan today and, in general, representatives of different religions and nations have always lived in peace and tranquility in our country," Leyla Abdullayeva recalled.
"I would also like to note that during the UEFA Europa League final, which Armenia watched with envy, trying to put this issue on the agenda by any means, numerous foreign fans who arrived in Azerbaijan saw the situation in the country," the spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry added.
