President Ilham Aliyev: Our biggest problem related to international affairs is settlement of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Baku, April 15 (AZERTAC). “Our biggest problem related to international affairs is the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Unfortunately, there was no progress in this direction in the first quarter. The mediators expressed some optimistic views at the end of last year. But they are not coming true. Today we are witnessing again that Armenia is simply biding time, tried to maintain the status of “neither war nor peace”, while international mediators, unfortunately, are not putting serious pressure on it,” said President Ilham Aliyev in a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the results of socio-economic development in the first quarter of 2014 and objectives for the future.

The Head of State noted: “In essence, international sanctions should have been applied to Armenia long ago because Armenia has been occupying Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory for 20 years now. An act of genocide has been perpetrated against civilian population. The Khojaly genocide has been perpetrated. A policy of ethnic cleansing has been unleashed against our people. Four UN Security Council resolutions are being flouted. There have never been so many injustices and violations of law in any other similar situation. International norms are violated. No heed is being paid to the resolutions of other international organizations – the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the OSCE, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. They are ignored. Thousands of Azerbaijani citizens have been killed. But at the end of the day Armenia is not faced with sanctions.

One may ask: why? How much longer are we going to be faced with double standards? What is the reason for that? Why aren’t the leaders of the fictitious “Nagorno-Karabakh republic” subjected to sanctions? Why aren’t sanctions applied to them? This is an injustice, these are double standards! This is why we are speaking up in protest against double standards in international relations. We urge the western countries cooperating with us not to allow the leaders of the self-styled “Nagorno-Karabakh republic” into their territories. They should be subjected to sanctions. They go there and conduct illegal TV marathons and raise money. And then this money is used against Azerbaijan. Their so-called leaders are received in leading countries of the West. They get visas, establish so-called representative offices, travel back and forth, etc. Why?

I think that the time has come for us to express our opinion on this issue openly. We are tired of double standards. It is impossible to tolerate so many injustices.”