Peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan is possible if the territorial integrity of both countries is respected – U.S. Ambassador

There are contradictions on certain areas in the relations between the United States and Azerbaijan, US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mark Libby said  in an  interview with a group of journalists on Thursday. "We have expressed our concern about the detention of journalists and civil society activists. We also expressed concern about the distortion of U.S. aid and cultural programs in Azerbaijan. This has an adverse effect on our relationship," Libby said.

According to him, there are many opportunities to correct this situation, because there are many areas where the interests of the two countries coincide and there is a positive experience of cooperation. These are the areas of security, energy and others. The issue of human rights in Azerbaijan is very important, and religious freedoms are part of these freedoms. The criticism in the State Department's report on violations of religious rights concerns specific cases of persecution of believers, the ambassador said.

How does the ambassador assess the current relations between the two countries after Baku's accusations of Washington financing anti-Azerbaijani forces, and the refusal of the United States from official visits before concluding a peace treaty with Armenia? Answering this question from Turan, diplomat admitted that these relations were "patchy" for periods.

Azerbaijan has voiced a lot of criticism of American policy, and the United States has expressed concern about various issues, the ambassador said. He noted that despite this, the two countries have many common strategic interests and they "mostly coincide."

It is in the common interest for Azerbaijan to be a strong and independent state living in peace with its neighbors and the majority of the Azerbaijani population wants the same. Therefore, the goals of the United States can be formulated as a desire to create conditions for the early conclusion of peace with Armenia, the diplomat said. Referring to the latest shootout on the border, Libby said that these events cause reasonable concern and the tasks of both sides are to prevent escalation and find a long-term solution to the conflict. At the same time, he stressed that the territorial integrity of both countries must be respected, "otherwise there will be no settlement."

Why did the United States not congratulate Ilham Aliyev on his election and limit itself to repeating OSCE assessments of the elections? To this question, the ambassador said that the United States shares the concerns expressed in the OSCE report on election violations and evaded a clear answer to the question of congratulations.

Libby also did not go into the reasons why the United States re-applied the 907th Amendment prohibiting the provision of state aid to Azerbaijan. "I don't think Azerbaijan needs military assistance now," he said. Commenting on the arrest of 10 journalists in Azerbaijan, the diplomat said that a country committed to democracy does not arrest journalists for their work. Why this is happening here, "I cannot answer," the ambassador said and added that a free and independent press is one of the indicators of democracy.