Azernews.Az

By Akbar Mammadov

The Organization for Democracy and Economic Development-GUAM Secretariat has condemned the occupation of Shusha city of Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region by Armenian armed forces, the organization said in a post on Twitter on 8 May.

"ODED GUAM Secretariat condemns the occupation of the city of Shusha by armed forces of Armenia in 1992. We reaffirm our support to independence and sovereignty of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders", the post reads.

It should be noted that Armenian armed forces occupied Shusha on 8 may, 1992. As a result of the occupation, 195 civilians were killed and 165 were injured. Some 114 Azerbaijanis captured by Armenians and detained in Shusha prison were later killed with special cruelty, 58 residents of the city are still missing. Before Shusha was occupied, about 25,000 people lived there, of which more than 24,000 people of Shusha have been become internally displaced persons and settled in 58 regions of Azerbaijan.

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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