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Iraqi ambassador to Azerbaijan: â€œUnfortunately, 20 percent of the Azerbaijani territories have been occupied and despite the UN resolutions, Armenia doesnâ€™t withdraw its troops from these areasâ€

10 December 2012 10:32 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Anakhanim Hidayatova – APA. “Iraqi and Turkish relationships are very special – for lot of reasons – historically, religiously. But the problem is the existence of PKK, they are hiding in very difficult geography, difficult to reach. They hide in caves in mountains they are hard to reach even for the most sophisticated army. This is why we have tension. We agreed on one point that PKK is a terrorist group. But we disagree with Turkey about the approach that Turkey use to deal with those group of terrorist because they go through the Iraqi sovereignty, they enter Iraqi territory without permission from Iraqi government”, said Iraqi ambassador to Azerbaijan Heydar Shiya Gubeyshi Al-Barrak in his interview to APA. Unfortunately many innocent people affected of this fight. Because of military operation of Turkey held without permission, the story continues for decades they only solution is with Turkish people or Turkish government should negotiate with them with PKK sit with them and listen to them.”

Responding to the question on Syria the diplomat said that in Syria we are not in the voice that regime should be removed by force, we have a long border with Syria. “We don’t want to see any Al- Qaida or Taliban government in Damascus, this will be a Serious threat to Iraq, we are not supporting the regime of Assad, we are not supporting the free army for the opposition of Syria – we call on the sides to hold talks and reach a solution, reach a peace.”

The ambassador also answered the question on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict: “Unfortunately, 20 percent of the Azerbaijani lands have been occupied, it is not fair beside the UN security resolutions. Unfortunately, Armenians do not response to UN security resolutions. Iraq’s position is very clear - we recognize the right of Azerbaijan in Azerbaijani territory and we call for peaceful solution to this struggle.”

The ambassador said the Azerbaijani embassy would be opened in Iraq: “The embassy will be absolutely opened and President Ilham Aliyev announced his concrete position on it. At present, the sides are engaging in the solution of technical and financial issues. This issue will be solved when the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan visits Iraq.”