Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Colombia supports the position of Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Colombia's Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin who is on a one-day official visit to Azerbaijan told journalists in Baku on July 8.

"We hope that Azerbaijan will soon achieve restoration of its territorial integrity," she said.

The same day the Colombia's Foreign Minister visited the tomb of Azerbaijan's National Leader Heydar Aliyev and outstanding ophthalmologist Zarifa Aliyeva in the Alley of Honor.

According to Holguin, the main objectives of her visit to Baku are to discuss the issues related to the strengthening of relations between the two countries, to identify areas of cooperation as well as to attract investors in the oil sector of Colombia.

Furthermore, Holguin expressed her country's desire to become closer to Azerbaijan.

Recall that Colombia became the second Latin American country after Mexico, whose parliament recognized Khojaly event as genocide.

In April 2012, the Colombian Senate has passed a decision on Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territories and recognized the crimes committed by Armenians in Khojaly in 1992 during the Karabakh war as genocide.

The decision was taken unanimously after 102 votes required for its adoption were successfully collected.

A supplement to the decision has information about the history of the policy of aggression against Azerbaijan, as well as about the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and the seven surrounding regions occupied by Armenia as well as about one million refugees and internally displaced persons, violence against the Azerbaijani population and human rights violations.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that had caused a lengthy war in the early 1990s. 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.