MFA: By allocating funds for monitoring elections in occupied territories of Azerbaijan, Armenia admitted that it controls Karabakh

On August 22, spokesperson of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Leyla Abdullayeva answered a journalist's question regarding yet another show around the 'elections' in Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia.

Q: According to Armenian media, on August 22, the government of this country 'for the first time allocated funds to foreign NСOs for monitoring of elections in unrecognized Karabakh'. Meanwhile, this decision is set up as 'unprecedented' saying that 'the government of Armenia previously acted as a country asking for money for democracy, and now it is financing democracy. What can you say in this regard?

A: Regarding this information in Armenian media, it should be reminded that it is not the first time Armenia, which occupies Azerbaijani territories, stage various shows there, calling them 'elections' or 'referendum'. By their results the entire international community always announces its principled position regarding the support to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, nonrecognition of the illegal regime, like in all 'elections' held there.

By allocating funds for conduction of a monitoring of 'elections' in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, the Armenian government once again recognizes that it holds an effective control over Nagorno-Karabakh region and the administrative districts of our country surrounding it, thus confirming the respective judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, contained in its 2015 decision on 'Chiragov and others v. Armenia'.

And, finally, the attempts to present the so-called 'elections to the local self-government bodies' in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan as an indicator of democracy does not stand up to scrutiny. The entire world community condemns the acts of mass termination of the Azerbaijani population, the ethnic cleansing and violation of the fundamental rights of hundreds of thousands of displaced persons. Bearing responsibility for all these international deliicts, Armenia cannot claim for the status of a democracy spreader.

Instead of futile attempts to create a visibility of 'exporting democracy' to the Azerbaijani Karabakh occupied by them, the Armenian government should rather think about the pressing issues of their own citizens. Moreover, their actions must not go contrary to the logic of the negotiation process on the resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno Karabakh or promote conservation of the status-quo, based on illegal occupation of the internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan.