Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Uruguay’s Foreign Ministry says it will study the authenticity of Armenian media reports saying this country’s foreign minister allegedly urged international community to recognize the separatist regime on Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Azerbaijan’s embassy in Uruguay has been tasked to cooperate with Uruguay's Foreign Ministry in investigating the credibility of these reports,” Hikmet Hajiyev, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s Press Service Head, said on January 6.

The Armenian media reported earlier that the Uruguayan foreign ministry has allegedly asked for the international recognition of the so-called “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic” and the right of “its people” to self-determination on January 4.

Hajiyev noted that in many cases the Armenian media outlets, such as the Asbarez website, release distorted information.

“The recent statements by the Uruguayan Vice President and Chairman of Uruguay’s Senate Danilo Astori during his visit to Armenia had been reflected inappropriately by Armenian media. Later, Uruguay’s Foreign Ministry said the information disseminated on his behalf is untrue. The official stance of Uruguay is to support a peaceful settlement of the conflict and to take into account the interests of both sides,” Hajiyev said.

Referring to the principle of self-determination of the international law, Armenians try to establish their second state in Azerbaijan’s occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region. However, this plan will lead to nowhere as there is no precedent in the world on establishing two states by one nation.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly stated that it can provide a high degree of autonomy for the Nagorno-Karabakh within its territorial integrity, but the Armenian side rejected it.

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.

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. However, the negotiations have been largely fruitless so far despite the efforts of the co-chair countries over 20 years.

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

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