Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan’s political parties have expressed concern over the unresolved conflict with Armenia over Nagorno Karabakh in a meeting with visiting OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Petros Efthymiou, a ruling party official said Friday.

Ali Ahmadov, deputy chairman of the Yeni (New) Azerbaijan Party (YAP), said these concerns were "absolutely legitimate", as the OSCE’s Minsk Group brokering settlement to the long-standing dispute has failed to achieve result in the peace process so far.

"I have to say that, unfortunately, the Minsk Group has not been able to work effectively in resolving the Nagorno Karabakh problem, though it has been active for a long time," Ahmadov told reporters.

The Minsk Group, co-chaired by Russia, France and the United States, has been working to reach a solution to the Karabakh conflict since Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a precarious cease-fire in 1994 following a lengthy war. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, including Nagorno Karabakh and its seven surrounding regions, since the war. Numerous rounds of negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.

Ahmadov told the OSCE PA head that the Azerbaijani public is critical of the OSCE and its Minsk Group "on serious grounds".

The YAP official also submitted to Efthymiou a copy of the Azerbaijani ruling party’s letter expressing protest to the Minsk Group co-chairs over the planned resettlement of more than 200 Armenian families from the Central Asian state Kyrgyzstan to the occupied Nagorno Karabakh region.

Ahmadov said that the situation with democracy in Azerbaijan was also discussed during the meeting with Efthymiou.

"We [YAP] pointed out that Azerbaijan has made progress in the area of democratization. However, opposition party leaders voiced critical views, as always. But I think that the OSCE PA president now has enough information about Azerbaijan."