Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

A waiting position of international organizations provides support to aggressor Armenia, Azerbaijani Defense Minister, Colonel General Safar Abiyev said during a meeting with the Deputy Secretary General of OSCE Adam Kobieracki on Thursday.

During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on the tense military and political situation in the region due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as other issues.

Focusing on the reasons for unresolved status of the conflict, the Azerbaijani Defense Minister mentioned that to date the four resolutions adopted by the UN on the liberation of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions have not been fulfilled. Abiyev also said more than 20 years of activity of the OSCE Minsk Group have yielded no results.

Responding to Kobieracki's question on the possibility of Armenian aircraft flying to Khankendi, Abiyev said "flights may only be operated when the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is resolved. And for this, first of all, the Armenian troops should withdraw from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan."

Armenian media frequently reports that the airport in Khojaly is to be commissioned in the near future.

Earlier, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry stated that commissioning of the airport is an open violation of the Convention on International Civil Aviation adopted on December 7, 1944 in Chicago.

International flights from the Khojaly airport, constructed in 1978, were prohibited after the occupation of territories by Armenia. The Khojaly airport, which has been registered in international organizations with the name UB13, is a facility with military purposes.

Meanwhile, the situation on the frontline still remains tense because of the frequent violations of ceasefire by the Armenian armed forces.

A precarious ceasefire was signed in 1994. However, units of the Armenian armed forces commit armistice breaches on the frontline almost every day.

Thus, on Wednesday, a soldier of the Azerbaijani Army, 19-year-old Farhad Shikhsafiyev was wounded as a result of an armistice breach in the direction of Fizuli region by the Armenian armed forces.

Besides, on Tuesday lieutenant of the Azerbaijani Army, 25-year-old Shahriyar Mammadov was killed as a result of the ceasefire violation in the direction of Aghdam region.

Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenia's withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.