Azerbaijani MFA responds to head of EU mission in Armenia ... who alleges Azerbaijani attack on Armenia in spring

A spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan  Azerbaijan Aykhan Hajizada has commented on the statements of the head of the European Union (EU) mission in Armenia, Markus Ritter, regarding the alleged Armenian claims of Azerbaijan's preparing for an attack in spring months", as he stated that "in the absence of an attack, this will be the success of the EU mission".

Ritter's remarks in an interview with the German newspaper Deutsche Welle drew strong condemnation from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

“We strongly condemn the presence of the main task of the EU as “protection of Armenia from Azerbaijan”, as well as the expression of opinions by the head of the EU mission about the alleged preparation of Azerbaijan for some kind of attack, based on false and full of slanderous statements by the Armenian side," Hajizada is quoted as saying by AZERTAC.

He added that Baku has repeatedly stressed the need to prevent the possibility of abuse of this mission in order to harm the normalisation process between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

"The EU needs to ensure that the activity of this mission is carried out in the form of mutual trust, the deployment of the EU mission in Armenia in an appropriate manner, taking into account the legitimate interests of Azerbaijan," Hajizada noted.

According to him, it is necessary not to allow the Armenian side to abuse the presence of the EU mission to escalate tensions and evade its obligations. Furthermore, the EU mission must not allow false and defamatory claims and carry out activities in accordance with the mandate.