Yerevan /Mediamax/. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stated that President of Armenia should stop "telling tales” to French companies and focus instead on "the terrible economic situation in his country”.

According to Trend, President of Azerbaijan, currently on a visit in Paris, made that remark at the meeting with members of the business board of Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF).

“When I was told the President of Armenia tried to discredit Azerbaijan and its economy in his speech at MEDEF a few days ago instead of convincing the investors to invest in his country, I became surprised. He spoke of innovation and said that Armenia is a land of innovation. I’ll say openly that we in Azerbaijan laughed at that, because there is a very famous saying, “If you are so smart, why are you so poor?” The fact that Armenia doesn’t have natural resources doesn’t mean the people should suffer from it. The majority of developed countries, including France, don’t have natural resources. However, they advance their countries through correct management, transparency, reliability, standards, education and innovation. So President of Armenia should stop telling tales to French companies and focus instead on the terrible economic situation in his country, where more than half of the population lives below poverty line and has no perspectives,” said Ilham Aliyev.