U.S. envoy to Azerbaijan summoned to Foreign Ministry

UHajiyev told Trend on March 12 that Cekuta received a note of protest, sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan to the U.S. State Department.

Meanwhile,Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the U.S., having held a meeting in the State Department, presented the protest of Azerbaijan to the American side.

The note says that getting an American visa on the Armenian passport and entering the U.S. on the basis of unreliable information provided by Bako Sahakyan, a resident of the Khankendi city of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region, permission to carry out activities that propagate an illegal separatist regime in relevant U.S. institutions and aim at collecting finance in the United States in support of the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, contradict the norms and principles of international law, the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council, the bilateral documents signed between Azerbaijan and the United States, and the official position of the United States, Hajiyev said.

This step of the U.S. is regarded as an activity against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, he added.

According to the spokesman, the note also says that the U.S. must faithfully fulfill its obligations, taken on the basis of norms and principles of international law, to suppress activities in the territory of the United States against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

“Taking into account the fact that Azerbaijan and the U.S. have partnership relations in other spheres, we regard this strange step of the U.S. as a change in the position of the United States on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and consider it as biased. The creation of opportunity for the entry of representatives of a fic- tional regime, created as a result of military aggression and bloody ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijan, into the U.S. while the U.S. introduces special sanctions against other separatist regimes in the post-Soviet area, is a manifestation of dual standards,” Hajiyev emphasized.

The U.S., as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, must comply with the requirements of the relevant resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council and, in this context, try to withdraw Armenian troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and return Azerbaijani IDPs to their native lands, the spokesman added.

“On one hand, the U.S. calls for a settlement of the conflict through negotiations, and on the other hand, creates opportunities for propaganda of the illegal regime and turns a blind eye to illegal acts in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, which raises serious questions about the impartiality and objectivity of the United States. This step of the U.S. seriously harms the negotiation process, efforts to ensure sustainable peace and security and serves to escalation of the situation in the region,” Hajiyev noted.

He added that by taking such a step, the U.S. has damaged the attitude of the Azerbaijani people and public towards this country.

“As a response to such behavior of the U.S., Azerbaijan will proceed from the principle of reciprocity in relations with the U.S.,” Hajiyev stressed.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries 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 districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.