Azerbaijan always took constructive position on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
By Rashid Shirinov
Azerbaijan has always taken a constructive position on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Chairman of Russia’s State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin said on June 25.
He made the remarks at a meeting with the Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Ogtay Asadov, Russian media reported.
“The issues of Nagorno-Karabakh cannot but worry us. Russia stands for a peaceful settlement of this conflict,” Volodin noted.
He added that everyone who stands for the aggravation of relations, who do not hear the words and desire of the people to live in peace, of course, follow the path of tension.
“We must do everything to prevent this from happening. Azerbaijan has always taken the right and constructive position (on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue),” Volodin stressed.
Russia, along with the U.S. and France, is a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group established to broker peace to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.
The two countries fought a lengthy war that ended with signing 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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