Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Geopolitical ambitions lie at the core of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Novruz Mammadov, deputy head of the Azerbaijani presidential administration, chief of the administration's foreign relations department said.

He made the remarks while speaking at the Breakout Session "Constructing Peace, Deconstructing Terror" within the framework of the 7th Global Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations in Baku on April 27.

Mammadov drew the audience's attention to continuing occupation by Armenia of 20 percent of Azerbaijan's lands.

“The UN Security Council adopted four resolutions demanding immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from our territory, but these resolutions remain on paper. These resolutions demand immediate and unconditional withdrawal,” he said. “In some cases, resolutions of Security Council are being implemented within hours or days. But in our case it is more than twenty years. That shows that there is a lack of political will.”

Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions of Azerbaijan have been under the control of the Armenian military and separatists since a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan ended in 1994. Over 20 years the negotiations have brought little progress in resolving the conflict, though a fragile truce has been in place.

The renewed hostilities, which are regarded as the worst since the ceasefire deal signed in 1994, were assessed as the result of inactivity of the international community, which turned blind eye to the injustice towards Azerbaijan.

He voiced regret over the fact that seven regions around Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region were occupied, but no one talks about this.

"International law is not respected. Nowadays, international legal principles are ignored in the issue of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” he emphasized.

Mammadov believes that tense situation prevails in many regions of the world because of such an unfair approach.

Baku, which has suffered from Yerevan's aggressive policy for more than two decades, has repeatedly stated that the presence of the Armenian Armed Forces in the occupied territories is a major obstacle to the settlement of the conflict and threat to the regional stability.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly voiced its commitment to the peaceful negotiated solution to the conflict, while Yerevan continues to blow the negotiation process.

Novruz Mammadov, later talking to reporters once again stated that Azerbaijan stands for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, by demonstrating its commitment to this issue for more than 20 years.

"But when there is an opportunity to move forward in resolving the conflict, Armenia commits a diversion. Such a situation was observed in 2009-2014 and in April 2016," he added.

Mammadov added that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan harms himself and his people by avoiding the talks.

"Of course, Azerbaijan will liberate its lands from Armenia's occupation. Azerbaijan will achieve this with the help of the international community,” he said, calling on the Armenian leadership to think about the future of its people.

Despite the fact that the UN Security Council adopted four resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) demanding the Armenian troops to withdraw from Azerbaijan's occupied territories, they were ignored and have not been implemented by Yerevan yet.

Although the OSCE Minsk Group, which is in charge of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as other international institutions have repeatedly made statements on the conflict resolution, all efforts ended without any result.

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