She made the remarks while commenting on a statement made by the Armenian Foreign Ministry on the increasing tensions in the region.

Abdullayeva went on to say that while the Armenian Foreign Ministry claimed in a statement recently that "holding negotiations with one hand and opening fire with the other one" is not right, the Armenian side fired on the positions of the Azerbaijani border in the direction of the border patrol posts located in Azerbaijan’s Gazakh District and injured a soldier serving in the Azerbaijani State Border Service.

“It is apparent that Armenia, while keeping Azerbaijani lands under military occupation with the one hand, seeks to find pretexts for not furthering the negotiations with the other. I would like to bring to attention that the [Azerbaijani] Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov stated after the Washington meeting that the situation in the frontline was also not completely calm when the negotiation process on the settlement of the conflict was previously in progress and the main documents were being discussed, but that the negotiations continued irregardless,” she noted.

“The Azerbaijani side will never come to terms with the occupation of its lands, and this is something that the Armenian side should have understood long ago. Only the withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the territory of Azerbaijan and the return of the expelled Azerbaijanis to their homes will lead to the elimination of tension in the region, the restoration of lasting peace and prosperity," Abdullayeva concluded.

More about: MFA   Leyla-Abdullayeva   Nagorno-Karabakh