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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev denies the use of terrorists in the military aggression against Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), with the same narrative as he was rejecting the caviar diplomacy, Armenia’s Ambassador to the Netherlands Tigran Balayan said on Thursday.

“Ilham Aliyev rejects the use of terrorists in his aggression against Artsakh, with the same narrative as he was rejecting the caviar diplomacy, multibillion assets in foreign countries, Panama Papers, crackdown on opposition, abuse of human rights, etc.,” he wrote on Facebook.

Aliyev has announced that “no mercenaries are fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone on Azerbaijan’s side.”

“Since the outbreak, already more than two weeks passed, not a single country presented us an evidence of that. Besides, we do not need them,” RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.

However, numerous international media reports have already confirmed the presence of mercenaries in the Karabakh conflict zone, with leading media outlets publishing interviews with some of them.

In a statement on 6 October, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) head Sergei Naryshkin said according to the SVR information, hundreds and even thousands of mercenaries from international terror groups, such as the Al-Nusra Front, the Firqat al-Hamza, the Sultan Murad Division, fighting in the Middle East, as well as Kurdish extremist groups actively converge in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.