Azerbaijan's Consul General: Armenia creating storm in teacup

"Armenia is creating a storm in a teacup. There is no aggression or invasion by Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani border forces are just taking up their positions on the border," Nasimi Aghayev, Consul General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles said responding to Armenia’s baseless claims of “aggression and invasion," Report informs.

"Much of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, alongside 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory, was under Armenia’s illegal, U.N. and U.S.-condemned occupation for 30 years. Last fall, Azerbaijan liberated its territories from the occupation and took control of its state border with Armenia. Due to difficult terrain and unfavorable weather conditions, some portions of the border were inaccessible. With the improvement of weather conditions, Azerbaijan has now deployed its border forces in those areas. All these measures are being taken within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan, based on maps available to each of the sides that define the interstate border," the consul general said in a statement.

He added that currently, negotiations are being conducted by border guards of both countries.

"As mentioned, for three decades Armenia kept 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory under its occupation and 1 million Azerbaijanis forcibly displaced. Nearly all occupied lands were razed to the ground by Armenia. All Azerbaijani heritage was destroyed," Nasimi Agayev said, noting that by such statements Armenia tries to distract from its own bad behavior.

"Creating unnecessary tension, Armenia’s ruling party also aims at strengthening its domestic positions ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. Azerbaijan is committed to resolving this tension peacefully, and has called upon Armenia to refrain from provocative actions and aggravating the tension in the region, and accept the reality of the interstate border regime along the liberated territories of Azerbaijan," Aghayev said.