Armenia’s defense minister Suren Papikyan did not comment on Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev’s statements made today.

Aliyev said earlier today that “there is no Lake Sevan, there is Lake Goycha; the return of Azerbaijanis to their historical lands should not frighten Armenians.”

“I am not in the habit of commenting on something I have not heard or read,” Papikyan told reporters in the National Assembly of Armenia, but promised to read Aliyev’s aforesaid statements and respond if necessary.

“But that Azerbaijan’s rhetoric has toned down, has changed since [the Armenian-Azerbaijani agreements in Washington] August 8—and that this is also visible at the border—is a fact. And when we talk about peace, it is not imagined at all; it is a reality,” the minister added the Armenian defense minister.

Suren Papikyan, however, did not answer the question of why the president of Azerbaijan refused to visit Armenia. “Do you want me to answer on behalf of the president of Azerbaijan? I don’t have that answer,” Papikyan said.