Azerbaijan rejects 'distorted' Armenian claims about President Aliyev

Baku has rejected a recent claim by Armenia, saying it "distorts the views" expressed by President Ilham Aliyev during a meeting he held with a group of intellectuals from western Azerbaijan.

“The Armenian Foreign Ministry's claim that Azerbaijan is not interested in peace and stability in the region and violates international law is nothing but hypocrisy,” a statement by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on Sunday said.

The statement added that the claim about Azerbaijan violating agreements made in Prague and Sochi and hindering the peace process between the two countries is “unfounded”.

Armenia “does not abandon its territorial claims against Azerbaijan and continues its intervention against the sovereignty of Azerbaijan,” the ministry added.

“The fact that Armenia put forward conditions preventing the meeting between the leaders in Brussels in December, as well as the refusal of the foreign ministers to attend the Moscow meeting on December 23, clearly demonstrates which side is hindering the peace process."

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'Confirmed by documents'

On Saturday, Aliyev noted western Azerbaijan as “our historical land,” which he said was “confirmed by a number of historical documents, historical maps and our history itself,” according to a report by state news agency Azertac.

According to the report, Aliyev also said that Armenians razed all historical and religious monuments in the region to the ground, "as they did in Karabakh".

“They wanted to erase the historical heritage of the Azerbaijani people, but they could not achieve their goals. Because there is history, there are documents and there are maps,” it added.

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