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Armenophobia is the last line of defense of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's power, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Naghdalyan said in response to a question regarding the Azerbaijani leader’s remarks made during his visit to Khatai district.

Below is the question and answer published by the Foreign Ministry's press service.

Question: During his visit to Khatai district, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev made a historical excursion about Armenia and the Armenian nation. He also commented on Armenia’s domestic processes, Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, as well as criticized the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship. We would like to ask for your comment on that.

Answer: My colleagues have already issued comments on this issue. I would simply like to add that President Aliyev, who was malicious about the spread of COVID-19 in Armenia a few weeks ago, today has no other words to address his society in lockdown than bringing forward the image of “useful enemy”. The Armenophobia is the last line of defense of Aliyev’s power, and hiding behind it describes the evolving domestic crisis and desperation in Azerbaijan at its best.

It’s ridiculous that Armenia’s domestic processes, human rights and freedoms have been reviewed by a leader of a country where for decades political and economic power has been in the hands of a single family, defined internationally as a repressive regime. It’s noteworthy that Ilham Aliev, with his hostile and racist comments, expresses irresponsible and disrespectful attitude, first of all, towards the statement of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs issued a week ago, which contained concerns about the inflammatory and provocative rhetoric.

As the Prime Minister Pashinyan stated at the recent joint session of the Security Councils of Armenia and Artsakh, “Attempts to turn the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict into a long-term Armenian-Azerbaijani enmity within which our peoples will fight on everything – past, present, future and the whole region – is in the interests of neither the Armenian nor the Azerbaijani people.”