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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s decision to call a snap presidential election for April 11, six months ahead of schedule can be linked with the country’s intra-clan relations, a deputy foreign minister of Armenia said on Thursday.

“I do not think Azerbaijan can possibly attach importance to elections. We know how elections are held there, thus I would link the snap elections with the intra-clan relations in the country,” Shavarsh Kocharyan told the reporters after today’s Cabinet meeting.

The Armenian official also pointed to the foreign policy issues as a possible reason behind moving forward the presidential vote in Azerbaijan.

“If there is a domestic struggle for power, any information suggesting one of the opposite sides can receive some assistance from a foreign state naturally leaves its impact,” he said.

Mr Kocharyan also touched upon the recent regional visit of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, stating the general policy line of the Co-Chairs remains unchanged, i.e. the trust-building remains an important precondition to move forward the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks, which in its turn requires the implementation of the relevant agreements.  

“In this respect we can observe a small step – the adversary’s consent to expand the monitoring mission. But that decision has not yet been brought to life,” he stressed.