Azernews.Az

BAKU – An Azerbaijani presidential aide said Tuesday that the potential of holding talks with Armenia to settle the long-standing Nagorno Karabakh conflict "has not run out yet".

Presidential Administration department head Ali Hasanov told reporters that the Azerbaijani president has repeatedly stated that "if I sense that the potential of negotiations has been exhausted…the Azerbaijani side will pull out of the negotiations and restore the country’s territorial integrity by other means."

Hasanov said Baku "cannot unequivocally state at this point" that peace talks have become useless.

"[Efforts by] the [mediating] OSCE Minsk Group’s co-chairs as well as other institutions involved in international peacekeeping processes are grounds to conclude that it is possible to resolve the [Karabakh] problem peacefully by putting pressure on Armenia."

Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory since a war in the early 1990s. Azerbaijani leaders have repeatedly warned that Nagorno Karabakh and other Armenian-controlled territories surrounding the region will be taken back by force if the long-running peace talks yield no results.