Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Anna Naghdalyan has disseminated a comment regarding the bellicose statements of various circles of the Azerbaijani authorities. The comment reads as follows:

“Recently the high leadership along with the other state agencies of Azerbaijan have been competing in delivering hysterical Armenophobic statements with no substantive content. It seems that the Azerbaijani leadership is attempting desperately to exceed its previous Armenophobic statements, which is not an easy task to do amid its decades-long anti-Armenian consistent discourse.

It is noteworthy that the authoritarian leadership of Azerbaijan, which promotes hatred among its people and puts forward war threats, instrumentalized the fighting against COVID-19 to commit massive human rights violations in its country. Recently, a number of reputable international and regional organizations have raised their voice against these practices of Azerbaijan.

Nevertheless, even though the Armenophobic propaganda and war threats of Azerbaijan are meant for domestic consumption, they seriously undermine the peace process and demonstrate that not the population, but the top leadership of Azerbaijan is not prepared for peace.

The anti-Armenian actions of the leadership of Azerbaijan have already received their legal assessment by the international bodies. In this vein, the ECHR ruling on “Makuchyan and Minasyan vs Azerbaijan and Hungary” case condemned Azerbaijan's racist policy, which was manifested by pardon, release and glorification of the murderer Ramil Safarov.

The current authorities of Azerbaijan, which consider Armenophobia as the main source of their legitimacy and domestic consolidation, pose a threat not only to Artsakh, Armenia and all Armenians, but also to regional peace and security.

The security system of Artsakh and Armenia is comprehensive and consolidated enough to effectively address and confront such threats.”