Tatevik Hayrapetyan: Azerbaijan`s President has shifted all  responsibility for military failures to the Minister of Foreign  Affairs

ArmInfo.The Azerbaijani army in Tavush suffered a major failure, and in order to hide this factor, the leadership of Azerbaijan again intensified its anti-Armenian  rhetoric.  Tatevik Hayrapetyan, a political scientist, an expert on  Azerbaijan and lawmaker from the "My Step" faction, stated this  during a press conference.

The MP noted that a protest action was held in Azerbaijan on July 14.  "Despite the fact that they tried to present it as an action in  support of the army, in fact it was anti-Armenian one. However, the  next day, there were arrests and representatives of the opposition  who did not take part in this rally were detained.  Thus, it becomes  obvious that that the leadership of Azerbaijan simply decided to  silence the opposition and settle scores with persons they disliked,  "she said.

Hayrapetyan stressed that joint Azerbaijani-Turkish military  exercises are being held in Nakhichevan.  "Unfortunately, the  leadership of Azerbaijan is only increasing its militaristic  rhetoric. I hope that Azerbaijan will soon return to a constructive  dialogue. I would very much like Baku to finally understand that one  cannot speak the language of force with Armenia," the MP said. She  also noted that former Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov was already  blamed for the failures of the Azerbaijani army in Tavush.  "However,  Ilham Aliyev made a mistake, trying to shift all responsibility for  the failures onto the diplomatic corps. Serious damage was done to  the entire foreign policy of Azerbaijan. And the further steps of the  President of Azerbaijan raise a number of questions, for example, how  on earth the new Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov relates to foreign  politics. What position will Bayramov take in the negotiation  process, how much is he ready for negotiations? Anyhow, the  negotiations will continue, and we will be able to draw the  appropriate conclusions, "Hayrapetyan concluded.

To note, on July 16, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed an  order to dismiss Elmar Mammadyarov from the post of Foreign Minister.  On the same day, the Minister of Education of Azerbaijan Jeyhun  Bayramov was appointed to this position.