Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan

Citing Baku’s continued racist statements during the 30th anniversary of the Baku pogroms, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan said “under no circumstances can Artsakh become part of Azerbaijan.”

Naghdalyan made the statement Thursday in response to a reporter’s question during the foreign ministry’s daily press briefing when asked to comment on high-level Azerbaijani officials’ reaction on the 30th anniversary of the Baku pogroms.

“First of all, I would like to emphasize that a number of important commemorative events were held on the 30th anniversary of the anti-Armenian pogroms in Baku and numerous articles about the barbaric annihilation of the Armenian community in Baku have been and continue to be published in the international media on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the anti-Armenian pogroms in Baku,” said Naghdalyan.

“Unfortunately, this year the authorities of Azerbaijan again explicitly or implicitly continued the policy of justifying the actions of the masterminds of the anti-Armenian massacres in Baku 30 years ago and the perpetrators of those massacres. Moreover, the perpetrators of the massacres against defenseless people were glorified as “shahids (martyrs)” by Hikmet Hajiyev, the Assistant to the President, while the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan accused Armenians themselves of perpetrating the anti-Armenian massacres in Sumgait,” explained the foreign ministry spokesperson.

“Azerbaijan’s behavior is common among perpetrators of crimes: blame the victims for their crimes and deny any responsibility for public and systematic extermination of unarmed people in peacetime,” said Naghdayan.

“This clearly illustrates, once again, that under no circumstances Azerbaijani authorities can be entrusted with the responsibility of providing security to any part of the Armenian people. Apparently, under no circumstances Artsakh can become a part of Azerbaijan, and the people of Artsakh cannot be left without secure lines of defense,” declared the foreign ministry spokesperson.