Armenia's government wants population to fill public budget, rather business

The new wave of price hikes, which started in Armenia from the beginning of 2018, continues causing resentment of broad masses in the country.

The purpose of the resolution, put forward by Congressman Frank Pallone on the order of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), which is a racist organization, is to disrupt the substantive negotiations, intensively ongoing with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and efforts to ensure sustainable peace and stability in the region.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s Spokesman Hikmat Hajiyev made the remarks to Trend on January 19.

In his resolution, Pallone urged his colleagues to open a link between the U.S. and the separatist regime established in the Armenia-occupied territories of Azerbaijan. It is worth reminding that last September, Pallone, co-chairman of the Friendship Group Armenia-USA, together with two other congressmen, illegally visited the occupied NagornoKarabakh, and was included in the list of undesirable persons of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry for this.

"Speaking with the initiative of this resolution, Pallone supports the military aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan, occupation of Azerbaijani lands, bloody ethnic cleansing committed against more than one million Azerbaijanis, aggressive separatism and injustice," Hajiyev said.

The spokesman added that by calling on the U.S. citizens to travel to Azerbaijan’s occupied territories and to have ties with the criminal and terrorist regime, the American congressman endangers the lives of the U.S. citizens.

Hajiyev noted that apparently, Pallone resorts to such a step in order to secure financial and voter support of the Armenian lobby of the U.S. at the election. The spokesman added that the resolution is based on false information and distorts the true essence of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

In its recent travel warning, the U.S. Department of State made a serious appeal to the U.S. citizens not to visit Azerbaijan’s NagornoKarabakh region and adjacent territories. Unauthorized visits to Nagorno-Karabakh and other regions of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia are illegal, and any individuals paying such visits are included in the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's list of undesirable persons.

The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Until now, Armenia controls fifth part of Azerbaijan’s territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from NagornoKarabakh and surrounding regions.