BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 9. In Azerbaijan, we have never had any conflict or even misunderstanding based on ethnic or religious differences,” said President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in an interview with the Azerbaijani press in Washington, Trend reports.
"For many years, Azerbaijan was demonized in the United States media, which President Trump fairly calls fake news. These media outlets, like The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsweek, and many others, on a regular basis were spreading rumors about Azerbaijan, attacking us, publishing insulting articles, and actually misleading American public opinion. That was mainly done by representatives of the Armenian lobby, the group which today acts against Armenian interests. And today, instead of being happy about what happens, they are absolutely disappointed because their agenda is completely different. They were responsible for the occupation because their ideas, their advice, their money, and their influence on different Armenian governments played a destructive role for Armenia itself. If not for them and groups like them, Armenia would have been a much more developed country with a solid, independent system, but they just lost time. They lost time occupying our lands, and in the end, they could not keep this occupation forever and actually lost 30 years in their development.
All those rumors and false information about Azerbaijan, for those who know our country, seem absolutely biased, because Azerbaijan is one of the countries famous for its ethnic and religious diversity. All the religious sites are protected by the state. In Azerbaijan, we have never had even a conflict, not even a misunderstanding, on the basis of ethnic or religious differences. On the contrary, Azerbaijan today is one of the centers of multiculturalism, where representatives of different religious and ethnic groups live as one family. So, I think what happened today will also be a good answer to those who still either do not know the reality or deliberately try to create wrong perceptions," said President Ilham Aliyev.