An Azerbaijani official has said that progress cannot be made on a Karabakh peace deal until the "fascist regime in Armenia is overthrown".
Deputy Prime Minister Ali Hasanov, who is also chairman of Azerbaijan's State Committee for Refugees and Displaced Persons, made the comments on Friday during discussions of a book by the head of the Presidential Administration, Academician Ramiz Mehdiyev, "Goris 2010: Theater of the Absurd".
His emotive remarks come a month before the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents are to hold their next meeting in Russia with the mediation of the Russian president, and a day after the US, French and Russian leaders urged the two countries to make progress on a peace deal and "to prepare their populations for peace, not war".
Ali Hasanov called on the international community to change the ruling regime in Armenia, following the example of Middle Eastern countries, 1 news.az reported.
"Serzh Sargsyan's regime is the most bloodthirsty of all the world's regimes and it should be overthrown. The time has come for the international community to pay close attention to the actions of the Armenian president. Serzh Sargsyan is a real criminal who has the blood of thousands of Azerbaijanis on his conscience. And until this fascist regime in Armenia is overthrown, I do not think there can be any progress on the Karabakh conflict," Hasanov said.
He said that the regime in Armenia would have to be replaced if the international community wanted stability in the Caucasus.
"This regime should be overthrown, as 90% of the population of the country are poor and hungry. If this continues, the collapse of Serzh Sargsyan's regime is unavoidable," the deputy PM continued.
He said that Nagorno-Karabakh would be liberated thanks to the policy of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, since, unlike other presidents, he conducts an independent policy and does not consult other heads of states on every issue.
The book under discussion by Hasanov and others on Friday criticizes the views of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, some of them expressed in the town of Goris in southern Armenia.
“The first clashes between Armenians and Azerbaijanis occurred in Goris in Soviet times in 1965 and Goris has the Armenians who are most hostile towards Turks and Azerbaijanis. Sargsyan made the statements there in order to gain the sympathy of the people of Goris,” 1 news.az reported Ali Hasanov as saying.
He accused the Armenians of continuing criminal acts by destroying the cultural and historical heritage of Azerbaijanis in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan.
“Thus, in [Caucasian] Albanian churches in Kelbajar, they started to replace Albanian crosses with Armenian ones. This process started just a few months ago,” he said.
He also urged the West to give a "legal assessment" to Armenian actions.
“The West should know that if they do not put Armenia in its place, Armenians will soon say that California is ancient Armenian land, while French Marseilles is an Armenian city. They will do it sooner or later and the West should already take action, though, unfortunately, we cannot see any action on their part,” Hasanov said.
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