YEREVAN. – President Ilham Aliyev negates peace efforts of the international community and throws the gauntlet to the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told Armenpress, commenting on the statement of Azerbaijani president that “the April events are an internal affair of Azerbaijan.”

The deputy minister reminded that Azerbaijan has signed an agreement with Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia on establishing truce (1994), and strengthening the ceasefire (1995). Co-chairing countries that have the mandate of the international community on peacekeeping mission have repeatedly made appeals to strictly follow the above agreements to respect the ceasefire and to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict exclusively by peaceful means, said Kocharyan.

According to him, it is clear that the resumption of hostilities by Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh in April 2016 is a flagrant violation of the commitments undertaken by Azerbaijan, blatant disregard of calls of the co-chairing countries and the aggression against the self-determined Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

If the Azerbaijani leadership is making such statements, this does not relieve them from responsibility for war crimes committed during the April aggression, Kocharyan added.

The statement made by Aliyev, even though it is not addressed to a third party, no doubt, can be considered a response to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.