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Karabakh conflict must sooner or later be resolved peacefully

23 May 2016 12:40 (UTC+04:00)
Karabakh conflict must sooner or later be resolved peacefully

By Gunay Camal

The Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has brimmed and simmered for over two decades, but it escaped the due attention of the international community. Nonetheless, everything has changed with the worst outbreak of violence since a 1994 ceasefire in early April.

When intense fighting broke out on April 2-5 in Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani land occupied by Armenia back in 1990s, the international community, including the U.S., the European Union, and Russia urged to calm with a view to prevent full-scale war from reigniting.

After a Moscow-brokered ceasefire and the U.S.-initiated Vienna talks between the two sides in mid-May, the hostilities slowed. But, a lasting peace is still a delusion as the status-quo cannot be a guarantor of peace.

Novruz Mammadov, deputy head of Azerbaijani presidential administration, chief of the administration's foreign relations department, is sure that today everyone understands that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must sooner or later be resolved peacefully and through negotiations

“An opinion was formed in Europe, the U.S. and Russia that the conflict needs attention and that time has come to find a solution to it,” he said in an interview with ANS TV channel.

Mammadov is sure that the April events on the frontline have once again attracted the attention of international community, the co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Group, as well as a variety of international and regional organizations to the Karabakh conflict, and have shown that the conflict is not frozen.

Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims. Since the 1990s war, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

But despite the ceasefire in 1994, low-scale fighting continued along the line of contact for the past 22 years. Failure of the Mediating group -- the OSCE Minsk Group -- to make meaningful progress toward peace only brought a backslide toward more war rhetoric.

Mammadov reminded that Azerbaijan's desire is to fairly settle the conflict based on within the framework of international law.

Commenting on the expansion of the powers of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman after the Vienna meeting, Mammadov said that Azerbaijan has expressed its official position on the issue.

"The main idea here was to strengthen the ceasefire regime. Armenia, just as in the beginning of April, has been constantly engaged in provocations. In this regard, several proposals were expressed, and one of them is an extension of the mandate of the OSCE Representative for monitoring. We said that that we do not object to this proposal," Mammadov said.

The OSCE mission regularly holds monitoring on the contact line of Armenian and Azerbaijani troops, but it failed to regulate accurately the situation since the first days of its activity.

The frequent ceasefire violations occur almost every day, causing great hardship for the people living near the frontline, as they can't live their normal everyday lives and are always under a threat. Persistent shootings by the Armenian forces lead to casualties, even deaths among the civilian Azerbaijani population. The latest clashes, whereas, showed the risks of rising violence.

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