The United Nations is concerned over the recent escalation of tensions in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
“As the [UN] Secretary General underlined on 22 June 2017, we are increasingly concerned over the deteriorating security environment, including the most recent ceasefire violations, along the line of contact and in the broader Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone,” Dujarric told a briefing in New York.
The UN took note of and echo the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs’ recent statement with reference to the renewed violence on July 4 in the Alkhanli village of the Fuzuli district, which resulted in casualties, including among civilians, he added.
“We call upon the sides to refrain from any military action, and strongly urge them to take immediate steps to de-escalate tensions and prevent any further violence. An early return to the negotiations table in good faith is the only way to resolve this long-standing and dangerous conflict.”
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 December 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.
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