Armenia deliberately evades essence of Karabakh conflict, says Azerbaijani FM

Armenia deliberately evades essence of Karabakh conflict, says Azerbaijani FM
# 15 November 2016 10:56 (UTC +04:00)

Baku – APA. Armenia often resorts to military provocations to evade the essence of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said in an interview with EFE Agency of Spain.

The minister outlined that there will be no peaceful solution to the conflict unless Armenian armed forces withdraw from the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

“If Armenia finally comprehends this reality and pulls its troops out of the occupied Azerbaijani territories, the conflict will be settled shortly after,” he said.

Mammadov added that Armenia refuses to fulfill the UN Security Council resolutions on Nagorno-Karabakh and often resorts to military provocations to evade the conflict’s essence.

According to the minister, Armenia occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s total territory, causing one ninth of the population to become refugees and IDPs.

“Armenia is responsible for waging war on and use of military force against Azerbaijan, occupying its territories, and committing ethnic cleansing and other grave crimes therein,” said Mammadyarov.

The minister added that the conflict’s possible settlement in line with the UN Security Council resolutions will allow Armenia and its people to benefit from cooperation and economic growth.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in Dec.1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nagorno Garabagh

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