YEREVAN — Armenia has accused Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev of misrepresenting understandings reached by the leaders of the two states, threatening to seize Armenian territory and torpedoing Nagorno-Karabakh peace efforts.
Official Yerevan also linked Aliyev’s latest statements with a weekend skirmish on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border which left one Armenian soldier dead.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said the soldier, Davit Vartanian, was fatally wounded on Saturday when his military unit deployed in southeastern Syunik province came under cross-border fire from nearby Azerbaijani positions. Baku claimed that its troops did not violate the ceasefire.
The incident happened one day after Aliyev’s visit to the Zangelan district bordering Syunik. Speaking there, Aliyev ruled out any negotiations with Armenia on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. He said Yerevan has agreed to exclude the issue from the agenda of planned negotiations on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.
Aliyev at the same time warned the Armenian side against insisting on an agreement on Karabakh’s status. He said Baku could respond by laying claim to Armenian territory. In that regard, he again referred to Syunik as an “ancient land” of Azerbaijan.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry deplored Aliyev’s bellicose statements and arbitrary and false interpretations of his agreements reached with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
In a statement, the ministry said that “negotiations on the normalization of...
A senior Iranian official has slammed the United Arab Emirates for being an aggressor, not merely a supporter of aggression, stating that the UAE cannot hide its aggressive nature and role behind ...