Azernews.Az

Armenia's non-constructive position prevents achieving progress in negotiations on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has said.

"Despite the [mediating] OSCE Minsk Group's efforts, we cannot make progress," Mammadyarov said addressing a forum of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries' think-tanks in Baku on Friday.

Mammadyarov stressed that the Minsk Group co-chair countries - the United States, Russia and France - presented new basic principles of Karabakh settlement and Azerbaijan accepted them as a good basis to start work to achieve a peace agreement that will lead to a breakthrough in negotiations. However, Armenia refused to accept the updated principles.

"After all the efforts we cannot achieve progress in negotiations, and it sometimes happens because of the non-constructive position of the Armenian side, which tries to preserve the existing status quo in the region and does not agree with the terms to withdraw its troops from Azerbaijani [occupied] territories," Mammadyarov said.

He said the conditions are quite simple - all recognize that the presence of foreign troops on the territory of another state is absolutely unacceptable, progress should be achieved step-by-step and the first step should be a withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied territories.

"We were able to establish good relations with our neighbors, but the unresolved conflict with Armenia over Nagorno Karabakh impedes the region's steady development," Mammadyarov said.

He said UN resolutions call for a withdrawal of Armenian troops from Azerbaijan's occupied territories and a return of refugees displaced during the 1990s war to their homes.

"But, unfortunately, we cannot achieve fulfillment of these resolutions. This sometimes raises questions about double standards. Some resolutions of the UN Security Council are fulfilled the next day or within a week, while the resolutions on Nagorno Karabakh have not been fulfilled to date, though all recognize that Azerbaijani territory is under occupation and [Azerbaijani] population was subjected to ethnic cleansing," Mammadyarov said.

About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including the Nagorno Karabakh region, has been occupied by Armenian armed forces since a fragile ceasefire was signed in 1994 following the lengthy war. Peace talks, brokered by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, have been largely fruitless so far.

The negotiations are underway on the basis of the Madrid Document, an outline of basic Karabakh settlement principles proposed by the OSCE mediators. The document covers a return of the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijani control, a future determination of the region’s legal status and the right of internally displaced persons and refugees to return to their homes.

Mammadyarov said Azerbaijan realizes that an Armenian pullout would not finalize a settlement of the conflict, and the status of Nagorno Karabakh is to be determined to complete the peace process. After Armenian troops are withdrawn from Azerbaijan’s territories, it will be possible to reopen communications, which are currently destroyed, and to build roads and railways, he noted.

Mammadyarov stressed that from time to time skirmishes occur on the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, but it is a widely accepted fact that the clashes take place because there are foreign armed forces on Azerbaijani soil.

"According to the UN by-laws, internationally recognized legal norms are in place which stipulate that we can avail of all means to free our territories from foreign forces illegally deployed there and to restore the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan. The requirement on restoring Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity is enshrined in the resolutions of the UN and other organizations, including OIC."

Mammadyarov said the conflict parties should provide suitable conditions, including economic ones, for refugees and IDPs to return to their former places of residence.

"It is necessary to ensure at least predictability, if not stability, in the Nagorno Karabakh issue," he said.

Mammadyarov emphasized that peace talks are currently complicated, given that 2012 is an election year for all the three countries co-chairing the mediating Minsk Group and that elections are also due in Armenia.

"This year will be quite challenging, but we offer our partners to avail of this situation not to slow down peace talks and reaching a [peace] agreement, but to promote greater understanding, particularly, between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagorno Karabakh, by means of establishing trust."

According to Mammadyarov, the conflict parties should reach progress for the mutual benefit of the Azerbaijani and Armenian people.

"I believe we will accomplish that with the help of the Islamic world, which supports our fair stance," he added.

This story is published by AzerNEWS Weekly under a project funded by the Foundation for State Assistance to the Development of the Media under the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.