Azernews.Az

By Akbar Mammadov

As a member of The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Saudi Arabia supports the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan on the issue of the second round of the so-called "elections" held in Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region on April 14, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's Spokeswoman Leyla Abdullayeva wrote on Twitter on April 15.

Reacting to the so-called “elections” in Nagorno-Karabakh, Saudi Arabia reiterated its firm position by Note Verbal, Abdullayeva said.

”In accordance with resolutions of UN and OIC, Saudi Arabia supports settlement of the conflict based on territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within its international recognized borders".

In the meantime, the General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) published a report on its official website on April 1, saying that the elections in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan on 31 March 2020 run counter to the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"The OIC General Secretariat further referred to the resolutions and decisions of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which supports a peaceful solution to the conflict on the basis of sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the internationally recognized borders of the Republic of Azerbaijan," the statement reads.

A number of other countries, including France, Germany, Turkey, UK, Canada, Australia, Norway, Pakistan, Latvia, Ukraine, Estonia, as well as major international organizations such as the EU, NATO, OSCE, OIC, GUAM, Visegrad Group, TURKPA have recently reiterated their support for Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and condemned the illegal elections held in in Karabakh on March 31.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Group’s efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

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Akbar Mammadov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AkbarMammadov97

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