Baku. 5 October. REPORT.AZ/ Spokesperson of Azerbaijan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Leyla Abdullayeva has issued a statement on the initiative "Women for Peace" put forward by Anna Hakopyan, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashintyan's group. Notably, in this context a group of women from Russia have expressed their intention to visit the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.
Foreign Ministry official told Report that Hakopyan's "Women for Peace" initiative is based on humanitarian principles and she understands it as a woman and mother:
"But, if the main purpose of this initiative is to prevent the death of young soldiers and innocent people, then it is necessary to look at very roots of the problem and to answer the question 'What are the soldiers of Armenia doing on the territory of Azerbaijan?' Mrs. A.Hakobyan did not properly select the targets for her humanitarian mission; in order to prevent the death of young people, first and foremost, she should start from the public of Armenia, urge Armenia to end the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories and refrain Armenian women and mothers to send their sons to the occupied lands of Azerbaijan.
"Obviously, this initiative is aimed in the current situation, in particular, before the elections, for the domestic audience of Armenia. However, it should be taken into account that such initiatives under the name of “humanitarian mission”, encouraging a group of women from the Russian Federation to visit the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, do not comply with the mandate of Russia as the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair country, do not serve the conflict settlement purposes, and also, do not meet the spirit of the conversation held in Dushanbe between the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Armenian Prime Minister. This issue will be raised by the Embassy of The Republic of Azerbaijan in Moscow with the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation."