Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan has withdrawn a draft resolution on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict from the United Nations General Assembly.

Azerbaijani officials attribute the move to the OSCE’s latest initiative on Karabakh settlement, including an upcoming international fact-finding mission to Armenia-occupied territories of Azerbaijan that surround its rebel region of Karabakh.

The proposed resolution, which was strongly opposed by Armenia, was expected to be approved by the General Assembly last Thursday. It upheld the right of Azerbaijanis expelled from Nagorno Karabakh and other occupied districts to return to their homes.

It also urged the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to scrutinize the conflicting parties' compliance with "international humanitarian law" on the ground.

Armenia has claimed that the document would cause "serious damage" to international efforts to end the Karabakh dispute. It insists that no international organizations except the OSCE Minsk Group -- co-chaired by the United States, Russia, and France -- should become involved in the conflict's resolution.

Azerbaijani Ambassador at the UN Agshin Mehdiyev asked the UN GA last Thursday to reschedule the issue for the assembly's next session, which begins this week. Mehdiyev told Radio Liberty that the reason for the postponement is a "field assessment mission" to the occupied Azerbaijani territories planned by the Minsk Group co-chairs, which he said would support Azerbaijan's position on the Karabakh conflict.

"As far as I know, the Armenian side continues to bring people from abroad and to settle them in the occupied territories to change the demographic situation, to destroy the cultural heritage of Azerbaijan in the occupied territories," Mehdiyev said.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry insisted last Friday that the fact-finding visit, which the mediators intend to start by mid-October, is "in no way connected" to the Azerbaijani resolution. It pointed to the mediators' September 6 statement, which said the mission had been agreed with all conflicting parties, in principle, weeks before the draft resolution was submitted to the UN GA.

In a statement, the ministry claimed that Baku withdrew it under pressure from the three mediating powers. "We are thankful to all those UN member states, and in particular to the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries, which through their stance prevented Azerbaijan from deviating and damaging the negotiation process of the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh problem," the statement alleged.

The UN GA passed a similar resolution on the situation in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, drafted by Baku, in March 2008. The document, backed by 39 countries, confirmed that Nagorno Karabakh is an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan and urged a full, immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the Armenian forces, which occupy 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands, despite four standing UN resolutions on their unconditional pullout passed earlier. The U.S., Russia and France had opposed the resolution.

In a joint statement issued last Friday, the OSCE co-chairs welcomed the decision by Azerbaijan to postpone consideration of its resolution in the United Nations. At the same time they reiterated that the Minsk Group remains the sole framework for a peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict.