Yerevan /Mediamax/. Azerbaijan has demanded an apology from the Russian state news agency TASS.

On July 31, TASS published a report on the demolition of Ivan Aivazovsky’s monument in Stepanakert, after which the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry made a demand to apologize and “stop distorting Azerbaijani toponyms”.

“I would like to remind the Russian side that the illegal renaming of the town of Khankendi in the territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, established on original Azerbaijani lands in 1923, as ‘Stepanakert’ in honor of Bolshevik Stepan Shaumyan, who, together with the Dashnaks, committed mass murders of Azerbaijanis, was an act of insult to Azerbaijan,” Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizada said.

“We expect TASS news agency to apologize and make an appropriate correction. Otherwise, in accordance with the law, measures will be taken against TASS’ activities in Azerbaijan,” he added.

Hajizada also noted that the monument to Aivazovsky was installed “illegally during the occupation of Azerbaijani territories.”