Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijan's foreign ministry has warned against Armenians' self-deception reiterating that they should keep this fact in mind that Azerbaijan is indispensible to Nagorno-Karabakh future.

Addressing a group of young people at the Winter University for Young Leaders, Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev said Armenia lacks specifics in the negotiations with Azerbaijan and it creates problems in settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

He noted that the main issue for Azerbaijan is restoration of its integrity and sovereignty. Abdullayev said Armenian leadership is well aware that sooner or later the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan will be restored.

"It knows that one day the restoration will definitely come true. The Armenian officials are currently pressing ahead their policy without thinking of tomorrow. Our goal is to convey this message to the international community that Armenia today avoids being objective towards the reality on the ground," Abdullayev said.

Abdullayev said Armenia is in disarray due to the conflict settlement process. "Non-recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh by Armenia as an independent state also stems from the fact that it does not know within which the boundaries to recognize it," he said.

He stressed that Armenia's position is groundless and weak from both a legal and political point of view and in terms of leadership in the region.

"This is why Armenia is hesitant to attend the negotiation process. This makes Armenia a rather complicated situation. The co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group is also well aware of it," Abdullayev said.

The OSCE Minsk Group traveled to the region on February 4-5 and hold discussions on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijani and Armenian leadership in Baku and Yerevan.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, 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's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.