Community head blames Armenian president
By Sara Rajabova
The Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh says despite repeated calls for talks with its Armenian counterpart, the latter avoids holding talks under pressure from the Armenian government.
Head of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh Bayram Safarov made the comments on the possibility of holding bilateral talks between the two communities to find a solution to the long-lasting Nagorno-Krabakh conflict which erupted in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan.
Safarov also blamed Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan for disruption of talks between Azerbaijani and Armenian communities. He went to say that President Sargsyan and his confidants are well aware that if the Azerbaijani community meets with Karabakh Armenians, there would be no room for their government any anymore.
Safarov went on to say that they will support the policy pursued by Azerbaijani President and accept the Azerbaijani citizenship. He also blamed the international community for its double standards towards Azerbaijan.
Safarov noted that the Azerbaijani government has frequently requested the international organizations to put an end to the occupation policy pursued by Armenia over the past 20 years.
"Despite the four UN Security Council resolutions calling for withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from occupied Azerbaijani territories, none of them have been implemented yet," Safarov said.
"Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev repeatedly stated that the world unfairly deals with the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," he said.
Safarov added that the young generation has become tired of the long-lasting peace process and wants to return to their native lands. He expressed confidence that one day the Azerbaijanis will return back to the occupied lands, and Azerbaijan's tricolor flag will wave in the occupied regions.
Safarov said the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh always supports the President Aliyev's policy and will not give up until the occupied territories are released.
He stressed that even the Armenians know that the occupied lands belong to Azerbaijan.
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.
As a result of the Armenian occupation, every 8th person in Azerbaijan has been compelled to live the life of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP). Over one million refugees and IDPs cannot return to their native, ancestral lands because of the delay in the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Long-standing efforts by the US, Russian, and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.
Armenia's military aggression has cost the life of over 20,000 Azerbaijanis, 4,866 are reported missing, almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.