Baku says Russian presidential aid’s statement on Karabakh surprising
By Trend
The statement made by Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is surprising and regrettable.
Hikmat Hajiyev, the spokesman for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, made the remark while commenting on Ushakov’s statement on “lack of optimism in Moscow about the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the near future “.
“Ushakov’s statement contradicts the spirit of the Vienna and St. Petersburg meetings of the presidents and the OSCE Minsk Group statements, voiced repeatedly at the presidential level, on the inadmissibility of the status quo,” Hajiyev told Trend.
He also said the statement doesn’t correspond to the detailed discussions held for the conflict’s resolution during the visits of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the region.
“We have repeatedly stated that according to the spirit of the Vienna and St. Petersburg meetings of the presidents, Azerbaijan supports substantive talks towards the step-by-step resolution of the conflict,” he noted.
“The substantive talks should ensure changing the current status quo, which is unacceptable and unsustainable, and the withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories,” added Hajiyev.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
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