Ukraine situation necessitates resolving Karabakh conflict
By Sara Rajabova
The U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan said the situation in Ukraine with its new intensity raises the need to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Richard Morningstar said what happened in Ukraine was a very bad thing, and appropriate measures need to be taken.
"I would like to add that what happened in Ukraine, for me, makes it even more important relations between Azerbaijan and the United States, and Azerbaijan and the European Union," Morningstar told journalists on March 18.
On February 26, several thousand people gathered in front of the Supreme Council of Crimea. After the escalation of the protests in Crimea, the Federation Council supported Russian President Vladimir Putin's appeal regarding the use of Russian armed forces in Ukraine pending "the normalization of the socio-political situation in that country".
The Crimean parliament made a decision on joining Russia on March 6. The deputies also voted for a referendum on the status of the peninsula on March 16.
The vast majority of the residents of Crimea - 96 percent - voted in favor of seceding from Ukraine and joining Russia.
Morningstar said the situation in Crimea demonstrates why the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be resolved.
He also noted that he believes it's important that the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia take steps to ensure peace in Nagorno-Karabakh and eliminate instability in the region.
He stressed that the continuation of the conflict is to no one's advantage.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.
The UN Security Council's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.
Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.