Azernews.Az

The next meeting of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs with the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan will be held in the coming weeks, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev told Trend news agency.

He said that Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met with OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in the presence of Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian in Paris on Monday.

Abdullayev said that at the meeting Mammadyarov expressed Azerbaijan's concern over information discussed in the mass media regarding resettlement of Armenians to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, particularly to Kalbajar.

Mammadyarov expressed Azerbaijan's position regarding flights from the airport in the occupied territories of the country, calling them illegal as long as Azerbaijani territories are under occupation.

The minister also said that the time has come to sign a comprehensive peace agreement, Abdullayev stated.

Earlier, Armenian media reported on the commissioning of the airport in Khojaly in the near future.

Commissioning the airport in Khojaly is an open violation of the Convention on International Civil Aviation [adopted on December 7, 1944 in Chicago], the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reported earlier.

Azerbaijan banned the use of the airspace of Nagorno-Karabakh occupied by Armenia, as no one can guarantee a safe air corridor in the area, the head of the Azerbaijani Civil Aviation Administration, Arif Mammadov said earlier.

He said Armenia's steps towards the operation of the airport in Khojaly are attempts to violate international legal norms. This air space belongs to Azerbaijan, so its use by Armenia is impossible.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the European Civil Aviation Conference (ICAC) also support the position of Azerbaijan on this issue.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France and the U.S. - are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.