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Region stands for peace in Nagorno-Karabakh

5 April 2016 18:45 (UTC+04:00)
Region stands for peace in Nagorno-Karabakh

By Aynur Karimova

Ramsar, a northern Iranian city, hosted the fourth round of the trilateral talks of Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran to mull various issues of mutual interest on April 5.

Elmar Mammadyarov of Azerbaijan, Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran and Mevlut Cavusoglu of Turkey discussed regional cooperation, fighting against international terrorism, cargo transportation, as well as the expansion of cooperation in political area.

Prior to the trilateral talks, the ministers held bilateral meetings, which mulled issues of the regional and mutual importance.

During the Mammadyarov – Zarif meeting, the main topic was the recent tensions on the line of contact of the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.

Mammadyarov said that Armenia is deceiving the international community by exacerbating the situation and trying to divert attention from the main issues that form the basis of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict settlement, as well as to maintain the status quo.

Tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan again aggravated on April 2 when the Armenian side shelled the Azerbaijani positions and settlements along the frontline. To protect civilian population, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched counter attacks and repulsed the enemy forces back.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions despite the four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.

Mammadyarov further said that the international community should exert pressure on Armenia, demand the country to put an end to provocations and withdraw its armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

Javad Zarif, speaking of the recent developments in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, called for truce, voicing Iran's readiness to act as a mediator between Yerevan and Baku to resolve the existing crisis between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"We should join efforts to rule out witnessing new crisis in the region," ILNA quoted Zarif as saying.

He further pointed to his phone conversation with Armenian counterpart, Edward Nalbandian, regarding Karabakh conflict and called for establishing peace in the region.

Later, the three ministers held trilateral talks and adopted Ramsar Statement, where the sides emphasized their commitment to the Urumieh, Nakhchivan and Van Statements adopted in the previous meetings.

They confirmed their commitment to establish a belt of peace, stability, security, prosperity and cooperation in the region by further enhancing their relations in all fields and underlined that these endeavors will strengthen the sense of regional ownership through solidarity.

Baku, Tehran and Ankara emphasized their common interest to strengthen peace and stability in the region and stressed in this context their commitment to principles of international law, in particular, respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability of internationally recognized borders and peaceful settlement of all conflicts.

Under the document, the three countries reiterated the importance of the earliest resolution of Armenia–Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of the above mentioned principles.

The three countries further underlined the firm determination to explore new ways to expand cooperation particularly in the areas that would ensure prosperity for the people of the three countries through economic growth and sustainable development.

Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkey decided to intensify all efforts to improve their economic and commercial cooperation to meet actual potentials to promote investments and trade, and to further strengthen cooperation in the field of energy, transport, telecommunications, industry, education, science, culture, tourism and sports through joint projects and programs.

The three countries also reiterated the importance of holding regular meetings in the trilateral format to further their political dialogue, coordination and cooperation on regional and global issues and agreed to hold the next meeting in 2017 in Azerbaijan.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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