Armenia has derided Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for openly scuttling peace negotiations by making "hateful" remarks directed at the Armenian people.

Aliyev, during an interview with Azerbaijani state TV, demanded that Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan clearly announce that “Karabakh is Azerbaijan”. Aliyev said Pashinyan must edit his declaration, made prior to the 2020 Artsakh war, that “Artsakh is Armenia. Period”.

"It is true, we crushed the head of the enemy and won a great victory in the second Karabakh war. However, revanchist forces are becoming active again in Armenia, we must be ready for any situation," Aliyev said during the TV interview.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry today, in response, said: “The words of hatred expressed by the top leadership of Azerbaijan towards the Armenian people are clearly aimed at deepening the intolerance and hatred of the Armenian people, which has been propagated by the state for decades among the Azerbaijani public."

Aliyev said Karabakh is an “internal issue” and that his administration will not discuss the matter with Armenia or any other country.

Aliyev said Karabakh Armenians "either should accept Azerbaijani citizenship or find another place of residence."

"Separatists should know that they have two choices: either they will live under the flag of Azerbaijan, or they will leave. We brought the main representatives of the separatists to their knees: Serzhik Sargsyan, Robert Kocharyan, Seyran Ohanyan. During the second Karabakh war, they allegedly came to Karabakh to fight against us. All three ran away from our territories like rabbits, and now none of them can even poke their nose into Khankendi [Stepanakert-ed.] or any other place," Aliyev said.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry described Aliyev’s remarks as proof positive that Baku is pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing in Karabakh.

"The president of Azerbaijan, under whose leadership gross and flagrant institutional violations of human rights and the rights of various groups are taking place in that country, is openly making existential threats to the peaceful population of Nagorno Karabakh living in their homeland,” the ministry wrote.