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Azerbaijani MP: Azerbaijan following path of peace despite all material and moral damage

22 February 2017 11:50 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan has suffered material damage amounting to $810 billion according to the working group’s preliminary estimation, said Azerbaijani MP Fattah Heydarov.

Heydarov, who also chairs the Council of Elders of Azerbaijan, made the remarks at the international conference on the theme “Armenian military intervention in Azerbaijani territories: damage and casualties," held in Baku Feb. 22, APA reported.

The MP said this is the damage caused by the destruction of man-made properties.

“Moreover, the Azerbaijani people have suffered enormous moral damage as well. However, after coming to power in the country, national leader Heydar Aliyev expressed willingness to solve the conflict peacefully. Heydar Aliyev’s policy is being continued by the country’s current President Ilham Aliyev,” he said.

“World leaders’ appealing to our president and asking him about his views at the Munich conference proved that we are following the path of peace and tranquility. We have chosen to continue following this path of peace in the face of all these material and moral losses,” said Heydarov, noting that Azerbaijan wants the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the seven surrounding districts to be returned through negotiations.

“The presidential order on the restoration of Jojug Marjanli shows that we will restore our territories and our people will return there. Furthermore, Azerbaijan is ready to ensure the security of all nations living in those lands, including the Armenian people. That is the way of our president”, he added.

Heydarov noted that the world is experiencing complicated processes.

“Processes accompanied by economic troubles and wars are everywhere. Today mankind should think that big massacres have always been caused by the Armenian factor. This factor must be prevented. They again intend to create a wartime atmosphere. The international community should unite their efforts and react to the aggressors”, he said.

The Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territories caused $819 million worth of damage to Azerbaijan according to the estimation of the Working Group, created to estimate the losses and causalities caused by the Armenian occupation.

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.