BAKU. July 16 (Interfax) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev dismissed Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov on Thursday.
The presidential directive is available on the presidential website.
Aliyev appointed Jeyhun Bayramov the new foreign minister, relieving him of his duties as education minister.
Mammadyarov has served as Azerbaijani foreign minister since April 2, 2004.
Speaking on Wednesday, Aliyev criticized the work Mammadyarov has done lately as foreign minister.
"I think our diplomatic activity could have been more productive. I've said on numerous occasions that our diplomacy should be offensive, rather than passive and defensive. There should be no room for diplomacy that is afraid of speaking up so as to please someone," Aliyev said at a government meeting on Wednesday, which dealt with Azerbaijan's socioeconomic development in the first half of 2020.
The foreign minister should perform his duties more productively and be more efficient in making opponents aware of Azerbaijan's position, Aliyev said.
The foreign minister was supposed to reach an agreement with Armenia on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but regrettably, this objective has still not been attained, he said.
In particular, the Azerbaijani foreign minister did not respond in any way when tensions began escalating on the border with Armenia on July 12, Aliyev said.
Armed clashes broke out on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on July 12, and the fighting has continued for a fifth day in the neighboring Tovuz district of Azerbaijan and Tavush district of Armenia, which also border Georgia and are located hundreds of kilometers away from the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, where the situation is currently calm.
Several battle posts located near the Armenian village of Movses have come under fire. According to Azerbaijan's official reports, 11 Azerbaijani servicemen, including a general, have been killed. Armenia has said four of its troops have been killed and twenty others wounded.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have placed the blame for the fighting on each other.
In particular, while speaking on Wednesday, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian described Azerbaijan's actions as "an open attempt at military aggression."
Aliyev said on Wednesday that it would make no sense for his country to initiate the fighting at the border with Armenia.
"The Armenian Armed Forces opened artillery fire on Azerbaijani army positions in the Tovuz district on July 12. A number of our troops were killed, several others injured as a result of this unexpected attack," he said. The president said that after ordering the Azerbaijani Armed Forces "to carry out such a strike on the enemy that they won't forget it for a long time." This is how Aliyev presented his version of the events.
A number of countries and international organizations have expressed concerns over the hostilities on the border and urged the parties to open a dialogue. The Russian Foreign Ministry has offered its assistance to Baku and Yerevan in stabilizing the situation.
The situation in the zone of tension on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border remained relatively calm on July 15.
On Thursday morning, the Armenian Defense Ministry said Azerbaijani forces had attempted sabotage and opened artillery fire on Armenian villages adjacent to the border.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry dismissed Armenia's account of events as disinformation and claimed that Azerbaijani villages near the border were fired upon.
Yerevan said the Azerbaijani forces sustained new casualties, and Baku denied this.
Jeyhun Aziz oglu Bayramov was born in Baku in 1973. He received a degree in economics from the Azerbaijan State University of Economics and a degree in law from Azerbaijan University.
Bayramov served in various positions at the Tax Ministry in 1996-2000, worked as a lawyer in Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn (Baku) Limited in 2000-2002, and as the director of the law firm OMNI in 2002-2013.
In 2004-2012, the leading international law publications Chambers Global, IFLR1000, and Legal500 annually put him on the list of best Azerbaijani specialists in taxation and civil law.
Bayramov served as chief of staff at the Education Ministry from May 30 to August 12, 2013, before being appointed deputy education minister.
He has served as education minister since April 23, 2018. He is married with two children.