Azernews.Az

The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh is the biggest threat to the region, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Arab TV channel Al Jazeera.

The president said that though a ceasefire agreement was signed in 1994, peace has not been achieved to date.

"This is the most dangerous conflict from the viewpoint of predictability. You cannot predict what will happen," Aliyev said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia leveled territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory since a war in the early 1990s, including the Nagorno Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France and the U.S. - are mediating peace talks.

"From the legal point of view, the entire international community considers Nagorno Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan," Aliyev said. "The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions demanding withdrawal of Armenian troops from Nagorno Karabakh."

President Aliyev said Azerbaijan still hopes that a peaceful solution can be found.

"But this solution must be based on international law. The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan must be restored, Armenians must leave all the occupied territories, and Azerbaijanis should have the right to return to all the territories of their original settlement, including Nagorno Karabakh."

Aliyev said Nagorno Karabakh could be granted the status of autonomy. "There are good examples of autonomies in the world and in Europe," he said.

Aliyev said that as far as the situation on the line of contact of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops is concerned, peace is "very fragile", virtually non-existent.

"Actually, we do not have peace," he added.