Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijani Presidential Administration chief Ramiz Mehdiyev has warned that a slew of criminal groups in the Armenia-occupied territories uniting with terror organizations create vast potential for crimes and signals a dangerous trend.

"Such an uncontrolled zone has been created in Nagorno Karabakh and seven adjacent regions occupied by Armenian armed forces," Mehdiyev, who acts as secretary of the Security Council, told a two-day meeting of the world’s security officials in Sochi, Russia this week, the Presidential Administration said.

"Incoming data and proven facts are completely grounds to say that this territory is being extensively used for the production, transit and trafficking of narcotic substances, smuggling of weapons and human trafficking, illegal migration, harboring terrorists, money laundering and other types of dangerous trans-national crimes. Since the mentioned zone and similar territories are outside of the influence of national and international law, it is not possible to react adequately to these threats on time. We therefore view Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement as part of the efforts on ensuring national and regional security and countering terror and other threats."

The Sochi meeting was attended by the secretaries of 43 countries’ security councils, presidents and prime ministers’ national security advisers, heads of power-wielding agencies, as well as Executive Director from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Yury Fedotov.

The Azerbaijani presidential administration chief delivered a report on threats to international information security in the conditions of a shaping global information society.

Mehdiyev pointed to the need for coordinated effort in a global information society. He noted that Azerbaijan frequently faces cases of information-related subversions.

"Open calls for separatist activity are made on the word wide web, the territorial integrity of states is questioned, and country leaders and public and political figures turn into a target of insults. It should be noted that such activities are often undertaken by the information structures of Armenia, with which Azerbaijan is in a state of war. Along with ‘the information weapons’ I mentioned earlier, hacker attacks are being carried out against Azerbaijan’s information resources."

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Karabakh for two decades. Armenia has been occupying over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory since the early 1990s. The ceasefire accord was signed in 1994, but efforts by international mediators have been largely fruitless so far.