Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister accuses Baku of racism and distortion of history
21.11.2012,
21:02
On Wednesday, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan, commenting on Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliev’s latest statements, accused Baku of racism and distortion of history.
YEREVAN, November 21. /ARKA/. On Wednesday, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan, commenting on Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliev’s latest statements, accused Baku of racism and distortion of history.
The thing is that the Azerbaijani leader, speaking at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Yeni Azerbaijan party, said that “Armenia is a territory created on historical Azerbaijani land and ruled from abroad and that the Armenian lobby is our biggest foe”.
“With such a racist ideology, with such a rampant distortion of history and such a ridiculous claims for its neighbors’ territories, Azerbaijan would have a chance to survive only in early Middle Ages,” Kocharyan was quoted by the foreign ministry’s press office as saying.
The deputy minister said that Azerbaijan appeared on the world map only in 1918.
“Baku has failed to understand that nowadays any country’s strength is based on love for its people, but not on a pathological hatred toward the region’s indigenous peoples and their cultural and historical legacies,” Kocharyan said.
Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Karabakh, mainly populated by Armenians, declared its independence from Azerbaijan.
On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority of the population (99.89%) voted for secession from Azerbaijan.
Afterwards, large-scale military operations began. As a result, Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions adjacent to it.
Some 30,000 people were killed in this war and about one million people fled their homes.
On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the military operations.
Since 1992, talks brokered by OSCE Minsk Group are being held over peaceful settlement of the conflict. The group is co-chaired by USA, Russia and France. -0---
