'International law is international law:' Shavarsh Kocharyan's response

Head of a UN member country must know that according to UN charter the respect for peoples' right to self-determination is one of the aims of that organization, and the principle of territorial integrity cannot run counter to the realization of people's right to self-determination, Armenia's Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said in an interview with local Armenian business daily Capital in response to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's recent statement.

Earlier Aliyev had said that based on the Madrid Principles the principles proposed today lay grounds for the restoration of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

"This simple truth, as I already mentioned, is reflected in the Madrid document and its latest version. Despite Azerbaijani leaders' desperate efforts international law is international law rather than their unfounded local perceptions about the [international] law," said Kocharyan.