Turkish envoy: Karabakh conflict must be resolved within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity

2 December 2019 17:26 (UTC+04:00)

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By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Erkan Ozoral has said that Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must be resolved within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and in line with the international law.

"The parameters for solving the problem are known. The parameters put forward by both the UN and the OSCE envisage the settlement of the conflict in accordance with the international law within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity," Ozoral said.

He made the remarks on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of Slovakia’s embassy in Baku on November 28.

Ozoral emphasized that Turkey would like more efforts to be made to resolve the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as soon as possible.

"OSCE is a very important international organization created to ensure security and stability in Europe. One of the OSCE’s important tasks is to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," he stated.

He expressed regret that despite many years, the conflict has not yet been resolved yet.

"Tthe Azerbaijani territories have not been liberated from occupation yet and therefore, we do not consider the OSCE’s activity in this sphere satisfactory. But presently, we support the OSCE, which is the most important organization in this conflict settlement," he concluded.

OSCE Minsk Group’s Co-Chairs mandated to provide an appropriate framework for conflict resolution in the way of assuring the negotiation process; to obtain conclusion by the Parties of an agreement on the cessation of the armed conflict in order to permit the convening of the Minsk Conference, and to promote the peace process by deploying OSCE multinational peacekeeping forces.

For nearly 25 years, the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem have brought no results.

The war over Nagorno-Karabakh was initiated by Yerevan due to Armenia’s unsubstantiated territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since the war in the early 1990s, 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.

To this day, Armenia has not implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94