Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said ways of settling the Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict with Armenia have been defined in 2009, with the territorial integrity principle taken as a basis.
Addressing a cabinet meeting on Monday, President Aliyev affirmed Baku’s intransigent stance, saying the conflict will be resolved based on Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
"I believe this formula could be critical for a solution of the Upper Garabagh conflict," Aliyev said. "Armenian occupying forces must be withdrawn from all the occupied Azerbaijani territories. Our countrymen – displaced persons – must return there. Security measures are to be taken as well. And, in the future, the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Upper Garabagh are to live within the Azerbaijani state in the conditions of a high-level autonomy. This is our stance."
Armenia and Azerbaijan waged a war over the mountainous region of Upper Garabagh in the early 1990s, which claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced about one million Azerbaijanis. Armenia has been occupying over 20% of Azerbaijan’s internationally-recognized territory since then. The ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but peace talks, mediated by the U.S., Russia and France through the OSCE Minsk Group, have been fruitless so far, and sporadic clashes on the frontline continue.*