Azernews.Az

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has accused leaders in neighboring Azerbaijan of allegedly seeking to block progress on resolving the conflict over the occupied Azerbaijani region of Nagorno Karabakh.

Speaking in Brussels during a visit at NATO headquarters on Tuesday, Sargsyan accused Azerbaijan of "continuing to sow hatred" against Armenians.

The Armenian leader’s remarks came after strongly worded statements by Azerbaijani officials over the 20th anniversary of the Khojaly massacre committed by Armenians during the Karabakh war. On February 25-26, 1992, Armenian armed forces invaded Khojaly, a town located in Nagorno Karabakh, brutally killing 613 people, capturing 1,275 people, disabling hundreds of others and ousting thousands from their homes.

Sargsyan said NATO leaders agree that the Karabakh conflict must be settled strictly in peace and with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group. According to him, a solution could be found only while ensuring the right to self-determination and security guarantees for the Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh.

Last month, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also met with NATO officials in Brussels. Aliyev said after the meeting that the alliance’s leadership agreed that the Karabakh problem must be resolved on the basis of the territorial integrity principle.

The Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 over Armenia’s territorial claims. The ensuing war claimed some 30,000 lives and displaced up to a million Azerbaijanis. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory has been occupied by Armenian armed forces since a ceasefire was signed in 1994. Peace talks, brokered by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, have been largely fruitless so far. Baku says the occupied districts must be freed and Azerbaijani refugees returned home, and only after that could the region’s status be determined within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, while Armenia insists that self-determination is the core principle for a settlement of the dispute. Mediators are seeking a solution based on both principles.

During his speech, Sargsyan also praised Armenia as an important partner for NATO and said Yerevan will review its commitments in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of foreign troops in 2014.

Armenia is set to engage in its first-ever joint military exercises with the United States aimed at improving cooperation in Afghanistan.

Armenia currently has about 130 troops on the ground in Afghanistan.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has praised the NATO-Armenian partnership and its contribution to regional and Euro-Atlantic security.

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.