Azernews.Az

BAKU – Italian Ambassador in Baku Mario Baldi has expressed disappointment with the deplorable conditions of Azerbaijani refugees displaced during the war with neighboring Armenia in the early 1990s.

"I have visited refugee camps. I know how people live and it isn’t easy to stay out of your own land for almost twenty years," Baldi said in an exclusive interview with AssA-Irada.

Up to a million Azerbaijanis were displaced in the lengthy war. Since the war, which ended with the signing of a precarious cease-fire in 1994, 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, including the Nagorno Karabakh region, has been under Armenian occupation. Peace talks, brokered by the United States, Russia and France through the OSCE Minsk Group, have been largely fruitless so far.

The ambassador expressed hope that the status of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict would change.

"I very much hope that the status will change because this is not acceptable to the people and government of Azerbaijan."

Baldi said Italy shares Azerbaijan’s view on the issue.

"You know that the European Union has a clear position. We are on the side of the international law. There are four resolutions of the UN Security Council. There is also a number of decisions approved by the Council of Europe, Organization of the Islamic Conference, and the OSCE."

The UN has passed four resolutions on an unconditional pullout of the Armenian armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories, but none of them have been implemented so far.