NATO backs Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity
By Sara Rajabova
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) supported Azerbaijan's territorial integrity.
The Alliance expressed support for territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan in the Final Declaration of the NATO Wales summit held on September 4-5.
The 30th Article of Declaration says NATO will continue to support the efforts towards a peaceful settlement of the conflicts in the South Caucasus based on the principles and norms of international law, the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act, as well as "the partners' right to make an independent and sovereign choice in foreign and security policy, free from external pressure and coercion".
Armenia violated the principles and norms of international law with occupying 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s.
As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.
The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they 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.