Azerbaijani foreign ministry responds to Zakharova: statements on Karabakh distort reality
In Baku, the latest statements by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova regarding the former Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict were viewed as a distortion of the real state of affairs.
As noted in the statement, the Karabakh region has always been recognized by the international community, including the Russian Federation itself, as an integral part of Azerbaijan.
In this regard, Moscow's attempts to regularly raise the issue of CSTO mechanisms in relation to sovereign Azerbaijani territories that were under occupation for about 30 years, as well as to link this to whether Armenia recognized Karabakh, were called completely groundless and contrary to the official position of the Russian Federation itself.
The ministry emphasized that Azerbaijan has fully restored its territorial integrity and sovereignty in strict accordance with the norms of international law, as a result of which the conflict was finally resolved.
Baku called on the Russian side to stop the practice of linking issues of bilateral Russian-Armenian relations with Azerbaijan.
“The CSTO’s participation in the conflict around Karabakh was impossible, since Armenia did not recognize this territory,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated earlier at the youth forum “Gvardeysk.”
“There was a story with Armenia, which seemed to say: ‘Let’s activate the CSTO mechanism.’ But essentially — in relation to whom and what?” she asked.
That territory, Karabakh, “which Armenia itself, unfortunately — fortunately — this is not my question, this is for them, for Yerevan — did not recognize as either its own or independent,” she said.
