Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijan’s foreign minister has once again reiterated the inadmissibility of status quo in the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Elmar Mammadyarov said while grossly violating the norms and principles of the international law, the UN Charter, Armenia carried out a military aggression against Azerbaijan.

"As a result, as I said earlier, some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory is under occupation. More than one million Azerbaijanis were subjected to brutal and bloody ethnic cleansing," Mammadyarov said in an interview with Russian Independent Newspaper commenting on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

He went on to say that by violating all existing legal norms, Armenian armed forces are holding military exercises, noting that Yerevan’s senior officials attend them. "The persistent efforts to settle the occupied lands with the refugees from Syria and Lebanon continue. All these short-sighted actions and negative elements greatly impede the progress of negotiations for peaceful settlement of the conflict," Mammadyarov said.

He stressed that as the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen stated at the top level, the status quo, which occurred as a result of occupation and aggression, is unacceptable and intolerable.

Mammadyarov said Armenia must first withdraw its troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

"The norms and principles of international law, the UN Charter, the four UN Security Council resolutions and other international documents form the political and legal basis of our position,” the minister said.

He noted that Armenia have been ignoring for more than 20 years the four UN resolutions demanding the immediate, unconditional and complete withdrawal of Armenian forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

Mammadyarov further said 2014 was quite an intensive year in terms of the negotiation process between Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents, adding the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries actively participated in this process.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in Sochi in August 2014 and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also held a meeting with the two presidents in September. In late October, French President Francois Hollande invited the two presidents to meet in Paris where they held bilateral and trilateral discussions.

Mammadyarov stressed that despite the persistent calls of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to start the work on the great peace agreement, the issue can’t get out of the deadlock, since Armenia ignores all the calls.

He added that Azerbaijan has repeatedly expressed readiness to start the work on the great peace agreement.

“We believe that in order to achieve progress in the settlement of this conflict, in their peacekeeping mission, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs need to take peace enforcement measures with respect to Armenia,” Mammadyarov said, adding that currently, there can be given a lot of examples of such an attitude towards the ardent violators of the international order.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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