Yerevan /Mediamax/. Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has described the statement of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as “inconsistent with the status of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair.”

“On WSB Atlanta channel on October 15, Pompeo expressed a number of views on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The Azerbaijani side believes that the opinion of the US Secretary of State does not correspond with the official position of the U.S. government, which Washington has repeatedly stated. In addition, his remarks do not correspond with the status of the United States as one of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs,” Azerbaijani MFA said in a statement.

On October 15, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he hoped that “the Armenians will be able to defend against what the Azerbaijanis are doing.”

He said in particular:

“What’s taking place in Azerbaijan and Armenia today is dangerous. We now have the Turks, who have stepped in and provided resources to Azerbaijan, increasing the risk, increasing the firepower that’s taking place in this historic fight over this place called Nagorno-Karabakh, a small territory with about 150,000 people.”

Nagorno Karabakh | 2020-10-15 21:24:40

Pompeo: “We are hopeful that the Armenians will be able to defend”

“The resolution of that conflict ought to be done through negotiation and peaceful discussions, not through armed conflict, and certainly not with third party countries coming in to lend their firepower to what is already a powder keg of a situation.

We are hopeful that the Armenians will be able to defend against what the Azerbaijanis are doing, and that they will all, before that takes place, get the ceasefire right, and then sit down at the table and try and sort through this – that is – what is a truly historic and complicated problem set,” said Pompeo.