Konstantin Zatulin, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots of the Russian parliament, doesn’t take Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s statement that “Yerevan and Zangezur are Azerbaijani lands” seriously.
Senior Russian State Duma MP K. Zatulin slams Aliyev’s statements as “lack of education”
STEPANAKERT, MARCH 26, ARTSAKHPRESS:At a press conference in the Armenian parliament, the Russian MP addressed the Azeri president’s statement by stressing that by making a similar statement Ilham Aliyev weakened his positions in the international arena.
“This statement was most likely done for the domestic audience, taking into account the upcoming elections in that country”, Zatulin said, adding that from a historic and political perspective Aliyev’s statement was rather unserious. “It is simply odd how someone can treat such statements seriously”, Zatulin said.
Konstantin Zatulin also recalled an interesting episode from the negotiations when Nagorno Karabakh was directly participating in the talks. “When Nagorno Karabakh was participating in the negotiations process, my good friend Arkadi Ghukasyan was representing Nagorno Karabakh in the talks, the then-minister of foreign affairs. One day after heated discussions over the negotiations table in Rome the Azerbaijan delegate tried to somehow ease the tension, he approached Arkadi Ghukasyan, who looked concerned, and asked what the problem was. Arkadi Ghukasyan answered that on the way to the Coliseum he was the map of the Roman Empire, where he noticed that on the territories which they’ve always considered to be theirs it was written “Greater Azerbaijan”. This was in the evening, while in the morning of the following day all members of the Azerbaijani delegation came to the negotiations angry, because they went to see how Greater Azerbaijan is written on the map of the Roman Empire but actually found out that it was written Greater Armenia [Mets Hayk] everywhere. So, I can’t link the Azerbaijani president’s statement with none other than lack of history education”, he said.
The Russian MP urged to not treat such statements seriously.
