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Azerbaijan is trying to remove the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict from the international agenda, the Department of Media and Public Diplomacy of the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said in response to a question of Armenpress news agency on Monday. The question and answer are provided below. 

Question: Recently, the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan made a comment, which contains territorial-historical claims towards Armenia. How will you assess such kinds of claims?

Answer: By making false territorial and historical claims against Armenia, on one hand the Azerbaijani side is trying to remove the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict from the international agenda, and on the other hand, it aims at creating new threats for regional security and stability.

In an attempt to justify such a false agenda, the Azerbaijani side does not shy away from attributing overt falsifications to the November 9 trilateral statement. If we follow the logic of the Azerbaijani interpretation of the above-mentioned document related to the return of the displaced people, then the Armenian refugees should return to Nakhichevan, Gandzak, Baku, Sumgait, and other territories of the present-day Azerbaijan ethnically cleansed of their Armenian population.

As for the historical claims made to Armenia by the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, it is difficult for us to comprehend Azerbaijan’s criteria on defining anything “historical". We have to remind once again that history can never be the strong side of a country whose geographical and political name has only a century-old history, and the name of Azerbaijani is even more recent.

The efforts of the Azerbaijani leadership to disseminate and maintain lasting enmity between the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples are a constant threat towards regional peace and security. Before accusing Armenia of revanchism, Azerbaijan should explain to the international community what the purpose of Baku's "war trophies park" is, which is nothing but a shameful "monument" of revanchism and hatred.

Armenia will continue to act consistently in supporting the realization of the right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh, the de-occupation of the territories of Artsakh subjected to ethnic cleansing, and the return of the Armenian population to those territories in line with the November 9 trilateral statement. Only the resumption of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship can create prerequisites for lasting peace in the region.