Azerbaijan will not discuss with Armenia or any third country issues that question Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and sovereignty, Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan - head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration, said during an interview with TASS, AzVision.az reports.

"Attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of our state, including pedaling the topic of creating some "international mechanisms" for dialog between the central government of Azerbaijan and the ethnic Armenian minority in Karabakh, are doomed to failure. Karabakh is an internal issue of Azerbaijan, and any attempts to dispute this are counterproductive from the perspective of achieving sustainable peace in the region," he said.

Hikmet Hajiyev noted that the peace process is currently being hindered due to the unconstructive and insincere position of the Armenian political leadership.

"Under the pretext of non-existent "blockade" of Lachin road, a large-scale disinformation campaign has been unleashed against Azerbaijan, which is coordinated by Yerevan and the Armenian Diaspora in different countries of the world, especially in the West," said the official.

He also emphasized that despite Armenia's attempts to accuse Azerbaijan of blockading a part of its sovereign territory, the opening of the Aghdam road for the cargo of the Russian Red Cross Society on September 12 showed the invalidity of such accusations. Thanks to the joint actions of the Russian Red Cross Society and the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society, the Aghdam road has become operational. Now Azerbaijan expects that also the cargoes of the International Committee of the Red Cross will simultaneously go along two routes - Aghdam and Lachin. Azerbaijan's international partners fully share and support this position.

According to Hajiyev, the main obstacle to the peace process now is the fact that Armenia continues to maintain illegal regime on the territory of Azerbaijan, backing it up.

"It is the illegal regime in Khankendi that blocks the simultaneous opening of the Aghdam and Lachin routes, refuses to accept food cargoes from Azerbaijan, justifying it with caveman racist motives that have no place in the civilized world. The illegal regime also torpedoes attempts of dialog between the central government of Azerbaijan and the Armenian ethnic minority living in Karabakh, despite Baku's repeated invitations to such contacts.

Hajiyev also added that Armenia's policy of supporting the illegal regime that has taken 30,000 of Azerbaijani citizens living in Karabakh hostage must come to an end.

"There is no place for 'gray zones' in Azerbaijan," he said.

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