Azernews.Az

BAKU – Unresolved conflicts in the Caucasus pose a threat to regional security, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said after talks in Tbilisi on Friday.

Mammadyarov told a news briefing with his Georgian counterpart Grigol Vashadze that the two had comprehensive discussions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Karabakh and the dispute over the South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions in Georgia.

"We discussed in detail the unsettled conflicts in the Caucasus, including the Nagorno Karabakh problem, and spoke about the relation of these issues to regional security," Mammadyarov said.

20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, including Nagorno Karabakh and seven adjacent districts, has been under Armenian occupation for nearly two decades. Ethnic Armenians are running a self-proclaimed republic in Nagorno Karabakh.

In Georgia’s rebel South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions, self-proclaimed republics have also been established with Russia's support.

Regarding settlement of the Karabakh conflict, Mammadyarov said Azerbaijan was still awaiting Armenia’s response to the Madrid principles, a peace outline proposed by international mediators.

"We are talking here about the plan agreed at the meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents with the mediation of the United States, France and Russia in 2007."

The mediating OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs initially proposed a peace outline on settling the conflict in the Spanish capital in November 2007. In Athens in November 2009, the updated version of the Madrid Document was submitted to the sides. The document covers "the return of the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijani control" and a future determination of the legal status of Nagorno Karabakh "through a legally binding expression of will" and the right of "internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their former places of residence."

Mammadyarov reminded that Baku said it accepts the renewed Madrid principles with some exceptions last December, but Yerevan has not yet issued its response.