We have never refused to negotiate, but Pashinyan behaves as if Armenia did not exist before him / GORDON

The entire responsibility for the worsening situation around Nagorno-Karabakh rests with the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, who thwarted the peace process. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said this in an interview with Al Jazeera TV channel on October 2.

According to him, after Pashinyan’s declaration that “Karabakh is Armenia”, he held several meetings with the Armenian Prime Minister, but they turned out to be “absolutely meaningless”. The Armenian leadership insists that the occupied territories cannot be returned, Aliyev said.

“Negotiations cannot be carried out unilaterally. We must have a partner. However, in the person of Armenia, we still do not have a partner in the negotiations,” the president said.

In particular, the Armenian side demanded that Azerbaijan carry out negotiations with the government of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh, which contradicted the Minsk process, Aliyev said.

“We have never abandoned negotiations. In previous years, we went through difficult times in the negotiation process. Not everything went well. However, we had a process. Former leaders of Armenia and we developed a phased approach. It was not a loss. of time”. we have come a long way. I have been involved in this process since 2003, I have worked with two former presidents of Armenia. We had a lot of disagreements. However, we are moving forward and building on what we have achieved so far. Having come to power, Pashinyan not only destroyed what was before him: he wanted to behave as if Armenia did not exist before him and now he is the creator of a new Armenia, “he said.

According to Aliyev, the Armenian government, provoking Baku, exaggerated its importance in the global arena and the international support that could be given to it.

In 1991, Nagorno-Karabakh, with the support of Armenia, declared its independence from Azerbaijan. This led to hostilities that lasted until 1994. The armed conflict ended with the signing of the Bishkek Protocol on Armistice and Ceasefire, but from time to time armed clashes broke out between the parties. During the conflict, more than 30 thousand people died in the region. Azerbaijan considers Nagorno-Karabakh as a territory occupied by Armenia.

The OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992 for the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

On September 27, 2020, the biggest conflict in recent years broke out in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry accused Armenia of “large-scale provocation”, bombardment of Azerbaijani army positions and announced the beginning of a “swift counteroffensive”. The Armenian authorities, in turn, declared that the Azerbaijani army had launched an offensive against Nagorno-Karabakh. During the conflict, the parties used tanks, heavy artillery and aircraft.