BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 28. The peaceful protest of Azerbaijani eco-activists on the Lachin-Khankendi road is aimed at stopping the gross violation by the Armenian side of its use, Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov said during a press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, who is on a visit to Baku, Trend reports.
"The root cause of this situation was a gross and repeated violation by Armenia of the provisions of the trilateral declaration, which provides for the solely humanitarian nature of the use of the Lachin-Khankendi road. For two years, the Azerbaijani side has repeatedly pointed out this misuse and gross violations by Armenia," he said.
According to the minister, Azerbaijan did so both through closed channels and through mediators, as well as repeatedly entering this matter into public discourse.
"After the situation reached the level of protests, the Armenian side, refusing to change its position, agreed at the level of its top political leadership that it has nothing to do with this issue, with the root cause, or with road safety issues, attempting to place all responsibility on Azerbaijan and Russia," said Bayramov.
Bayramov noted that the Armenian side is actively engaged in a propaganda campaign, trying to mislead the international community and create buzz around this situation by refusing constructive dialogue and attempts to find solutions.
"From the first day, the Azerbaijani side stated that we are doing and will do everything in our power to avoid any negative humanitarian consequences, primarily for the Armenian population living in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. And for more than two months, Azerbaijan has been consistently engaged in this, being in almost daily contact with the peacekeeping contingent as well as with the International Committee of the Red Cross. The legitimate demand of representatives of the Azerbaijani civil society must be heard and fulfilled," he said.