Friday, October 4 2019 18:20

ArmInfo. Armenia'sForeign Ministry Spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan comments on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's speech at Valdai Discussion Club. As the press service of the MFA informs, the statement reads as follows: 

 "We have to state that there is nothing new in the speech by the  President of Azerbaijan. The maximalist stance of Azerbaijan, which  has been the main and essential threat to the peace process, remains  unchanged even despite the recent agreements reached, which implies  preparing peoples for peace", 

The formula proposed by the Prime-Minister Nikol Pashinyan - the  settlement should be acceptable to the peoples in Armenia, Artsakh  and Azerbaijan - is aimed at bringing that very commitment to prepare  peoples for peace to a more practical dimension.

This formula is aimed at making the idea of compromise acceptable to  all sides, engaging societies in creating an environment conducive to  peace, as well as enshrining the responsibility and accountability of  the leaders before their people.

In his response to the Armenian side, President of Azerbaijan made no  reference to the necessity of peaceful solution for the peoples of  the region. Moreover, he casted doubt on the existence of Artsakh  people on their own historical homeland.

In order to substantiate its maximalist approach Azerbaijan has  always used rhetoric of dehumanizing Artsakh and the Armenian people  overall. Such instances of demunaization include pardon of Ramil  Safarov by the President of Azerbaijan and his glorification,  atrocities committed against peaceful citizens and soldiers during  April aggression of Azerbaijan against Artsakh, ethnic cleansing of  Armenians from the Artsakh territories under the Azerbaijani  occupation and erasing the Armenian historical presence and traces on  the territory of Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani maximalist rhetoric and dehumanization of the people  of Artsakh create existential security threat to people of Artsakh.  Effectively countering this threat is an all- Armenian issue, which  was best formulated through the commitment undertaken by the  authorities of Armenia before the people of Artsakh, on August 5.

Armenia is confident that peaceful settlement of the conflict and the  victory of democracy in the region has no alternative and in that  sense attaches importance to fulfilling the commitment to prepare  peoples for peace.

Earlier, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, speaking at the plenary  session of the XVI annual meeting of the Valdai International  Discussion Club in Sochi, said that Nagorno-Karabakh is a historical,  original Azerbaijani land.

Stressing that the statement of the Prime Minister of Armenia  "Karabakh is part of Armenia and that's; final" is a lie, President  Ilham Aliyev said: "Karabakh is historical, original Azerbaijani  land. So Karabakh is Azerbaijan and an exclamation mark>.