Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is abusing the relationship between his country and France, as well as its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Representative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on special assignments, Ambassador Elchin Amirbayov is quoted as saying in an article by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Report informs.
"The struggle to restore independence, territorial integrity, and sovereignty has been the main motive in the last, more than 20 years, ever since our lands became occupied," Amirbayov noted. "Now the issue is over. We restored our pride. We also restored historical justice."
While the revanchist sentiment is strongest among Armenia's political opposition, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan dabbles in it as well, Amirbayov argued.
"The first step which would send us a signal [that Armenia has given up revanchism] would be a clear expression by Pashinyan -- not only in declarations but in real actions -- that he does not consider the outcome of the latest military confrontation as something that he has to contest," Amirbayov said.
In the first war between the two sides, over 600,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis were displaced from the territories that Armenians seized. The Azerbaijani government is now spending billions on demining and rebuilding those areas to make them ready for the return of their former residents. That should serve as a unifying force for Azerbaijanis now, Amirbayov noted.
"I think now the idea of Azerbaijan, the national idea which will be pursued by the government would be to try to consolidate peace, try to live as a country which is independent but which has never had a chance to live in possession of all of its territories," he added. "The most important challenge for the decades to come would be to inject normal life back into those liberated territories."