By Trend
The use of the expression "all parties to the conflict" in the
comments of the Russian Foreign Ministry regarding the illegal
visit of Armenian prime minister’s wife Anna Hakobyan, as well as
Russian State Duma member and other Russian citizens, to the
occupied Azerbaijani territories causes surprise, the Azerbaijani
Foreign Ministry said in a message on Oct. 17.
"As a co-chairing country of the OSCE Minsk Group, the Russian
Foreign Ministry is well aware that there are two parties to the
conflict - Armenia and Azerbaijan,” the message said. “Armenia and
Azerbaijan were defined as conflicting parties in the final
statement and other documents of the OSCE Ministerial Council in
1992 in Helsinki.”
“Currently, negotiations are being held in this format with the
mediation of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group,” the message
said. “We think the comment of the Russian Foreign Ministry
regarding the provocative visit of Deputy Chairperson of the
Russian State Duma committee Svetlana Zhurova - which is illegal
and detrimental to the interests of resolving the conflict through
negotiations - is ineffective.”
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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