Armenia has criticized statements made by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev yesterday that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict has been solved and that the Minsk Group has nothing more to do.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry, in a statement today, accuses Baku of attempting to present the Nagorno-Karabakh issue as a territorial dispute while it is about the realization of the rights of the Armenians of Artsakh and the exclusion of the threat of ethnic cleansing.

“We call on the leadership of Azerbaijan not to disrupt the discussions conducted in the existing formats with warmongering, expansionist rhetoric,” the ministry’s statement reads.

The ministry writes that any normalization talks between Yerevan and Baku must address all issues, including the final settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and that the Minsk Group’s mandate to facilitate such a settlement remains.

Aliyev, according to Azerbaijani press reports, declared that the Karabakh issue had been resolved during at speech he made yesterday at the opening of a “smart village” in Artsakh’s Zangelan region.

“We have resolved this issue. Whether Armenia wants it or not, the whole world has already accepted it. We have resolved the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” Aliyev is quoted as saying.