Deputy President of the Armenian Parliament Edward Sharmazanov, responding to Azerbaijani press reports that President Ilham Aliyev had recently stated that he would never allow “the establishment of a second Armenia state” and that Baku would soon “liberate Karabakh”, said that the Azerbaijani leader “has continued to make statements that have no connection to reality.”

Hetq covered Aliyev’s comments in an earlier news-brief.

“It is not up to Azerbaijan to grant the people of Artsakh the right to master their own destiny. The people of Artsakh have already won that right on the battlefield and have enshrined it via referendum,” Sharmazanov said.

Referring to Aliyev’s statement about not allowing a second Armenian state on Azerbaijani territory, Sharmazanov recalled the words of former head of Azerbaijan Abulfaz Elibey who said, “There is no Azerbaijani language, only Turkish.”

Thus, Sharmazanov argued, Azerbaijan is nothing more than a second Turkish state.

As to claims by Aliyev that "Armenian bullets" had defaced the statute of Azerbaijani opera singer Bulbul, in Shushi, Sharmazanov wryly reposnded that when Baku recognizes the Republic of Artsakh, establishes diplomatic relations with Stepanakert and opens its embassy there, it could erect whatever statue of Bulbul it liked inside.