Defense ministry: Karabakh settlement requires Armenian pullout
By Sara Rajabova
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has said Armenia must withdraw from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan for a solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
"Armenia wants to withdraw snipers from the Line of Contact (of Armenian and Azerbaijani troops), but this would not resolve the conflict," Defense Ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu said on September 17 at a press conference at a military unit of the ministry in Naftalan.
According to Sabiroglu, until Armenia withdraws from the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, the problem cannot be solved.
He said that as long as Armenia continues to pursue an aggressive policy, the tension will remain on the frontline.
"The Armenian side is very concerned over the activity of snipers on the Line of Contact and offers to remove them from the frontline. They do not realize that a withdrawal of snipers cannot solve the problem. For a drastic solution of the problem, in the first place, Armenia must stop its policy of occupation and pull out of the Azerbaijani lands. Only then can we talk about anything," he said.
During the press conference Sabiroglu also spoke about the achievements made by the Azerbaijani army in recent years, touched upon the issue of increasing the combat readiness of the country's military, etc.
According to Sabiroglu, during skirmishes on the frontline, Armenia sustains twice as many casualties as Azerbaijan.
Regarding the situation in the armed forces of Armenia, he said the situation there is deplorable.
A group of members of the Azerbaijan Parliament, intellectuals and NGO leaders have visited a military unit of the Defense Ministry located on the frontline close to the Goranboy region. The delegation included the chairman of the parliament's social policy committee Hadi Rajabli, deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee on defense and security Aydin Mirzazade, the chairman of the Writers Union of Azerbaijan Anar, and others.
The delegation members familiarized themselves with the living conditions of military men and visited the canteens and barracks. The delegation also headed to the frontline.
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 caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by US, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.
As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.
The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.