Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry slammed the Armenian President over his provocative statement.

"The international community has expressed its position on settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict many times: Nagorno-Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan and the international community recognized Azerbaijan together with its occupied territories," Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev told Trend Agency on April 9.

During his visit to Turkmenistan on April 7, Serzh Sargsyan stated that Karabakh people's right to self-determination is indisputable and its actual organization should be fixed de jure, Armenian media reported.

Abdullayev said President Sargsyan had better focus his efforts and energy on settling the conflict, rather than making provocative statements which once again confirm Armenia's unconstructive position.

"It is a fact that Nagorno-Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan and the whole international community recognizes it. It's about time for Yerevan to accept this fact," Abdullayev said.

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 Armenia's military aggression, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing, almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.

The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenia's withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.