The withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the territories of Azerbaijan and the return of the expelled Azerbaijanis to their homes is the only way that will lead to the elimination of tension and restoration of lasting peace and prosperity in the region, said spokesperson of Azerbaijan`s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Leyla Abdullayeva as she commented on a statement made by the Armenian Foreign Ministry on the increasing tensions in the region.

“The sole reason for the existence of tension in the region today and of a "frontline" between Armenia and Azerbaijan, in general, is Armenia, which militarily occupied the internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan, namely Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts. Looking for another culprit in this issue under various pretexts is nothing but a desperate attempt to deceive oneself, as "the resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council, which is comprised of members of the international community - including the three permanent member states of the OSCE Minsk Group - and the resolutions of other organizations speak for themselves.

“As long as the Armenian armed forces retain their presence in the internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan, the possibility of the occurrence of such incidents unfortunately remains high. The only way to prevent such cases is to ensure the withdrawal of Armenian occupying forces from the territories of Azerbaijan,” Abdullayeva said.

“While the Armenian Foreign Ministry claimed in a statement recently that "holding negotiations with one hand and opening fire with the other one" is not right, the Armenian side fired on the positions of the Azerbaijani border in the direction of the frontier combat point located in Azerbaijan’s Gazakh district and wounded a soldier of the Azerbaijani State Border Service. It is obvious that Armenia, while keeping Azerbaijani territories under military occupation with the one hand, seeks to find pretexts for not furthering the negotiations with the other. I would like to remind that the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov stated after the Washington meeting that the situation on the frontline was also not completely calm when the negotiation process on the settlement of the conflict was previously in progress and the main documents were being discussed, adding that the negotiations continued nevertheless,” she added.

“The Azerbaijani state will never reconcile itself to the occupation of its territories, and this is something that the Armenian side should have understood long ago. Only the withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the Azerbaijani territories and the return of the expelled Azerbaijanis to their homes will lead to the elimination of tension, the restoration of sustainable peace and prosperity in the region,” Abdullayeva concluded.