MP: Azerbaijan wants to liberate Armenian-occupied lands peacefully
By Rashid Shirinov
Azerbaijan wants to ensure its territorial integrity and sovereignty by peacefully liberating its lands occupied by Armenia, Azerbaijani MP Bakhtiyar Aliyev told Trend on November 14.
He was commenting on the speech of the Azerbaijani President and Chairman of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party Ilham Aliyev at a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the party’s creation.
“No one should doubt that Azerbaijan will liberate its lands,” the MP said. “But our state wants to achieve the liberation peacefully through negotiations.”
The MP added that if the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries are really supporters of peace, they should exert pressure on Armenia to force it to leave the lands of Azerbaijan and fulfill the requirements of the four UN Security Council resolutions.
Addressing the ceremony yesterday, President Ilham Aliyev noted that there will be no change in Azerbaijan’s principled position on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which should be resolved within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.
Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.
Unfortunately, peace talks mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. within the OSCE Minsk Group have produced no tangible results so far due to the reluctance of Armenia to join peaceful negotiations.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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