“We strongly condemn those who visit the occupied territories of Azerbaijan without permission. We perceive this as a violation of our country’s borders and disrespect to our territorial integrity,” Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy Chairman and Executive Secretary of the New Azerbaijan Party, Ali Ahmadov said commenting on the visit of former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan to Nagorno-Karabakh.
According to him, the OSCE should not turn a blind eye on this issue: “At the same time, we invite the international organizations and OSCE Minsk Group and their officials involved in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to not ignore such cases and react acutely. Certainly, during the negotiation process, such visits have a negative impact on general agreement and further escalate the conflict between the parties.”
Ahmedov believes that the main reason behind such cases is the occupation of 20% territory of Azerbaijan: “Our country cannot control these territories. International organizations do not fulfill their commitments properly. In this case, of course, we have to demand from international organizations to take more stringent measures to prevent such cases.”