Azernews.Az

A Russia-dominated military bloc has hit out at a recent statement made by the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Russia Polad Bulbuloghlu which it claims had a clear-cut call for military action to resolve the nearly two-decade-long Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict.
"If Ambassador Bulbuloghlu’s statement circulated by Azerbaijani media conforms reality, it is clearly disappointing. Bulbuloghlu’s remarks contain an unambiguous call for the use of force, which does nothing to advance finding a constructive solution of the Upper Garabagh conflict," Novosti Armenii news agency quoted the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the military arm of CIS, as saying in a statement.
Bulbuloghlu said that it is time to liberate the Armenia-occupied territories of Azerbaijan by any means, adding that if Baku launches military operations, no country has the right to interfere, "because Azerbaijan will be waging warfare on its own soil and reserves the right to free its lands from the invaders in accordance with the UN bylaws." The CSTO alleged that such a stance incites tension in the volatile region and contradicts the premise of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group’s efforts and the talks between the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents.
"The ambassador’s statement could be assessed as lack of confidence in the methods of political-diplomatic solution of the conflict and encouragement for a military solution of the problem. And the fact such a statement was heard from a well-known man of art is very odd, because the ideals of such people should be achieving harmony and peace. Just like other international institutions, the CSTO has repeatedly stated its support for a peaceful resolution of the Garabagh conflict and continues to back efforts being made within the OSCE toward attaining a political solution of the dispute."
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a cease-fire in 1994, but Armenia continues to occupy Upper Garabagh and seven other Azerbaijani districts in defiance of international law. Despite numerous rounds of negotiations, mediated by Russia, France and the United States through the Minsk Group, peace talks have been largely fruitless so far. Baku says the occupied districts must be freed and Azerbaijani refugees displaced during the armed conflict in the early 1990s returned home, and only after that could the status of Upper Garabagh be determined within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.*