Azerbaijan to raise in OSCE PA issue of Pashinyan's illegal visit to Karabakh
By Rashid Shirinov
Azerbaijani delegation will raise the issue related to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, including the illegal visit of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to Nagorno-Karabakh and provocations committed by Armenia on the contact line, at the OSCE PA session to be held in Berlin on July 7-11, Vice-President of the OSCE PA Azay Guliyev said on May 23.
He noted that the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has always been the first issue on the agenda of the Azerbaijani delegation to the OSCE PA.
“Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh and the adjacent regions are occupied by Armenia, and we will raise this issue in the OSCE until the occupation ends,” Guliyev said.
Guliyev noted that the OSCE is the only international organization dealing with the conflict settlement and to some extent carries out a mediation mission, but it is ineffective.
“Therefore, we will raise this issue in the OSCE PA. As for the situation in Armenia in connection with Pashinyan, it is obvious that he and his team are making very populist and pretentious statements, and this is euphoria caused by the revolution,” the OSCE PA vice-president said.
He noted that there is no doubt that this euphoria will soon fade away and the Armenian leadership will begin to understand the reality and will abandon empty and meaningless statements.
“Their statements do not serve the peace and do not help to solve the problem peacefully. The Armenian leadership must realize this. At the same time, the OSCE has a great responsibility here,” Guliyev said.
He also expressed regret that the OSCE Minsk Group did not react and condemn Pashinyan’s visit to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and holding a press conference and military exercises there.
“Azerbaijan is very concerned about this, so we will touch on this issue at the upcoming session of the OSCE PA in Berlin,” Guliyev said.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.
While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign state with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.
Until now, Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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