History and Democracy Are Not Azerbaijan's Strong Points: Naghdalyan Responds to Azeri Foreign Ministry Spokesperson's Statement

The spokesperson of the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Anna Naghdalyan, has addressed the response from the spokesperson of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry regarding her comments released yesterday, which again included territorial and historical claims, as well as negative assessments of Armenia’s internal political and democratic processes.

According to the Azerbaijani side, Naghdalyan's words reflect a limited mindset of the Armenian side.

Naghdalyan remarked that the Azerbaijani spokesman’s reaction requires some commentary, but will be very brief. She specifically stated, “I do not believe that the number of words can in any way indicate the truthfulness and value of the expressed thought. The best example of this is the statement of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson, where there is an attempt to mask the absence of arguments with a jumble of words that have no relation to reality.”

“From that perspective, I would like to address two points—history and democracy. In general, I would recommend refraining from using the expression 'historical Azerbaijan' before making historical claims against Armenia. The name Azerbaijan has only a one-century history in the South Caucasus, both politically and even geographically, and the use of the term Azerbaijanis is even more recent. We understand that in this country, there has been and is a process of forming a new identity over the last hundred years, which we do not wish to interfere with; however, this does not mean that we cannot occasionally remind that history is not Azerbaijan's strong suit,” she noted.

“Regarding democracy, our perceptions differ sharply from those of the Azerbaijani side. For instance, we cannot consider the transfer of power between different members of one family as part of a democratic practice. Our assessment of Azerbaijan's low democratic standards is continually confirmed by various international actors who assess the state of human rights and democracy through different indices. In this case, we also need to state that democracy is not Azerbaijan's strong point either,” she added.

Finally, she emphasized that they profoundly believe that even amidst existing differences in perceptions, it is possible to maintain a respectful tone in communications, and this wish is also directed to the Azerbaijani side.