Azernews.Az

BAKU – President Ilham Aliyev has said one of the key reasons for the world community’s stepping up efforts to settle Azerbaijan’s conflict with Armenia over Nagorno Karabakh in past years is the powerful Azerbaijani state and its military.

President Aliyev was quoted by the state television channel AzTV as saying on Tuesday that the latest statement by the leaders of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group’s co-chairing countries – the United States, Russia and France - issued in Deauville "gives us hope".

"In this statement, the Helsinki Final Act [which lays out the principles of non-use-of force, territorial integrity and self-determination of nations] is taken as a basis, and it particularly highlights the need for changing the status quo. And in this case, Azerbaijani land have to be freed from [Armenian] occupation," the president told a government meeting. He added that Armenia has been unwilling to change the status quo for the past two decades.

Azerbaijan and Armenia waged a brutal war in the early 1990s. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including the Nagorno Karabakh region, has been under the occupation of Armenian armed forces since a ceasefire was signed in 1994.

President Aliyev reminded that the Minsk Group co-chairs submitted to the sides in 2009 the updated version of the Madrid Document, a roadmap for resolving the long-standing conflict. Baku accepted the basic conflict settlement principles during the talks between the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders held in Sochi with the Russian president’s mediation, while Yerevan is backing down from the adoption of the Basic Principles, Aliyev said.

"Despite the attitude toward the issue of the whole world, of European institutions, and particularly the Minsk Group co-chair countries, Armenia’s actions… are incomprehensible."

Regarding the Madrid principles, the Azerbaijani leader said a "new situation" has now emerged. He did not elaborate, adding that Azerbaijan "is showing constructivism again."

The Basic Principles that lie at the core of peace talks include the return of the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijani control; determining the final legal status of Nagorno Karabakh; a corridor linking Armenia to the region; and the right of all internally displaced persons to return to their homes.