Another Skirmish between Aliyev and Pashinyan at Eastern Partnership Videoconference

Baku / 19.06.20 / Turan: On June 18, during a summit of the Eastern Partnership countries in a video conference format, a skirmish occurred between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan.

In his speech, Aliyev criticized the policy of the Armenian authorities, accusing Yerevan of occupying Azerbaijani lands and refusing to resolve the conflict peacefully.

"Armenia continues to occupy 20% of the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh and another 7 regions of Azerbaijan have been under Armenian occupation for about 30 years. As a result of the ethnic cleansing policy of Armenia, more than 1 million Azerbaijanis have become refugees and internally displaced persons. Four UN Security Council resolutions require a complete and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from all occupied territories of Azerbaijan," Aliyev said.

"Contrary to the fact that the Prime Minister of Armenia is trying to nullify the essence and format of the negotiations, Nagorno-Karabakh is not Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh is Azerbaijan, and the whole world recognizes it as such. The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan must be restored," said Aliev

To this Nikol Pashinyan threw a cue that Azerbaijan pursued a racial policy against the Armenians on its territory. “A citizen of Azerbaijan, who killed a sleeping Armenian with an ax and was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court of an EU member state, after extradition from this country, was pardoned by Mr. Aliyev. This person is perceived as a hero by everyone in Azerbaijan.

The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh have the right to self-defense in order not to be killed by an ax. I apologize, but I believe that the Eastern Partnership platform is not for inciting violence. Partnership needs to be encouraged here.

I urge the President of Azerbaijan to return to my proposed constructive course and to the constructive formula, according to which the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be acceptable for the peoples of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia and Azerbaijan," Pashinyan said.

Then Ilham Aliyev again took the floor, saying: “What I said in my speech is a historical truth based on resolutions of international organizations. Firstly, everyone knows that Armenia occupies the territory of Azerbaijan. Secondly, not he, the Prime Minister of Armenia, would advise to talk about racism, since Armenian terrorists are known all over the world. A man named Karapetyan who committed a terrorist act at the Orly airport in Paris was subsequently extradited to Armenia and pardoned by the President of Armenia. That is why I would recommend him to sit quietly when there are discussions on such issues. This concludes my speech," Aliyev said. -02D-