Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Visegrad Group, known as the “Visegrad Four”, has voiced support to the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Representatives of the organization, which is an alliance of four Central European states – Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, made the remark at a meeting in Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry.

Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov met with the delegation of the organization’s political directors on November 1, the ministry reported.

The delegation members said the Visegrad Group understands how sensitive and painful is the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for Azerbaijan, whom they accept as a close partner and friendly country.

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.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 1994, but long-standing efforts by U.S, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far. Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its pullout from the neighboring country's territories.

The delegation members also noted that the organization attaches great importance to cooperation with Azerbaijan and are ready to make every effort to maximally present the country’s position in Brussels.

They expressed regret over the documents adopted by some EU structures on Azerbaijan, pointing out the necessity of developing the cooperation with the country located in a strategically important region.

Khalafov, for his part, said Azerbaijan attaches great importance to cooperation with the Visegrad Group members both in bilateral format and as a group.

Emphasizing the important role of this organization within the EU, he said the group’s initiatives are interesting.

He reminded that the Eastern Partnership program was also initiated by the Visegrad Group.

The Visegrad Four was founded in 1991 as a regional club aimed at strengthening cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe.

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

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