Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov on Saturday delivered a speech at the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly, condemning the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijan's territory and saying the long-standing conflict between the two countries threatens security in the region and the whole world.

The minister said this was his first speech at the General Assembly after the election of Azerbaijan as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council last October, and expressed deep gratitude to the members of the organization for the support to the country in the 17 rounds of the elections.

Mammadyarov said in his address that the current topic of discussion is the settlement of international disputes and situations in the world, and it is "still timely and topical".

"This is a logical continuation of the discussions that took place during the 66th session of the General Assembly," he said. "Indeed, the peaceful settlement of disputes is a key, core principle of international law . It is important to respect the territorial integrity and political independence of each other, and to refrain from the threat or use of force in international conflicts and resolve them based on international law."

According to him, during the 65th and 66th sessions the General Assembly adopted two resolutions, strengthening the role of mediation in the peaceful settlement of disputes, conflict prevention, and the Secretary-General submitted a report which contained the guidance of effective mediation.

"It's crucial that the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Secretary General's guidance for effective mediation reaffirm the key role of the UN Charter and international law, in particular, commitment to respect and upholding the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of States," he said.

According to the minister, the world still faces persistent and systematic violations of the fundamental principles of international law.

"There are times when the use of force is practiced against the territorial integrity and political independence to achieve territorial gains. Hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world continue to suffer aggression, occupation, ethnic cleansing, and the prevailing impunity for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community.

"The ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan continues to represent a serious challenge to security in the region and the world. The conflict resulted with occupation of almost 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, and more than a million people have become refugees and internally displaced persons. The war killed and injured hundreds of Azerbaijanis, including the elderly, women and children," Mammadyarov said.

The foreign minister said that the aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan also affected the socio-economic sphere and pointed to the damage inflicted to all the cultural and architectural monuments in the occupied territories.

"But we believe that there is no alternative to peace, stability and mutually beneficial cooperation in the region," Mammadyarov continued. "As a country that has suffered from the occupation and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of its citizens, Azerbaijan is the most interested party in the earliest negotiated settlement of the conflict, being confident that the objective is to end the illegal Armenian occupation, to ensure the return of internally displaced persons and to ensure peaceful coexistence of the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Nagorno-Karabakh within the Republic of Azerbaijan," Mammadyarov said.

The Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia levelled territorial claims against Azerbaijan. The two countries fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a precarious cease-fire in 1994. Armenian armed forces have since occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno Karabakh, defying international calls and UN resolutions. Peace talks, brokered by the United States, Russia and France through the OSCE Minsk Group, have been largely fruitless so far.