Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said the withdrawal of Armenian forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories would pave the way for resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Elmar Mammadyarov made the statement at a trilateral meeting between Azerbaijani, Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers in Van city of Turkey on March 14.

Mammadyarov said Azerbaijan is ready to cooperate with all countries, including Armenia, but this country should understand that its armed forces must withdraw from the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

"This requirement does not amount to a condition. It is just the main point of negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Mammadyarov stressed.

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.