Hikmet Hajiyev: For 30 years, Armenia pursued policy of military occupation, but Azerbaijan is committed to peaceful agenda

For 30 years, Armenia has pursued a policy of military occupation against Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani people. But Azerbaijan is ready to turn the page on the confrontation and is committed to a peaceful agenda, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan - Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev said in an interview with BBC News, Report informs.

“Their [Armenian separatists’] presence in the territory of Azerbaijan is illegal by nature. For 30 years Armenia continued to pursue the policy of military occupation against Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani people,” Hajiyev noted.

Therefore, all actions of Azerbaijan aimed at dissolving this illegal regime with paramilitary elements are completely legitimate and are within the framework of international law, he said.

“We would like also to release these local Armenians from the military junta regime, their criminal oligarchs which are taking their local population as a hostage,” he added.

“Azerbaijan has always said that we are ready to provide rights and security of Karabakh Armenians under the constitution and also international obligations of Azerbaijan especially in the context of conventions on the protection of the rights of ethnic minorities,” he noted.

“In Azerbaijan it’s in a rule model in itself in terms of providing the rights and security of ethnic minorities where different ethnicities and religious confessions are living side by side,” Hajiyev noted.

He added that Azerbaijan is ready to provide for the religious, cultural and humanitarian needs of the Armenian population under the Constitution of Azerbaijan.