Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijan’s top official believes the time has already come to return the Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia.

Novruz Mammadov, Deputy Head of Azerbaijani Presidential Administration and Chief of the Administration’s Foreign Relations Department made the remark on November 20, while commenting on the talks held by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Yerevan.

Mammadov noted that the Armenian side has not realized yet that the more it delays the conflict's solution, the worse it is for them.

“The Armenian leadership, namely, the foreign minister and president, often first agree on one issue and then suddenly change their position during the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiations,” Mammadov said, stressing that the situation changes and previous words and statements seem to have no significance.

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 U.S, Russian and French mediators through OSCE Minsk Group have been largely fruitless so far.

Earlier, Armenian media reported that Russia is trying to persuade Yerevan to liberate the occupied Azerbaijani regions in exchange for Azerbaijan’s consent to join the Eurasian Economic Union.

Mammadov further underlined that the essence of all negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict envisages that at least 3-5 occupied regions of Azerbaijan must be liberated at first.

“Under the Madrid principles, at first, five regions must be freed. These regions must be cleared from mines and refugees must return there,” the official said.

The second stage relates to determining the format of the Lachin corridor and the issue of liberating two more Azerbaijani regions, according to Mammadov.

“At the same time, in parallel, earlier or later, a question of placing the peacekeeping troops in Nagorno-Karabakh will be solved. That is what they want – ensuring of the safety factor," Mammadov said.

He added that the third stage stipulates the return of refugees to Nagorno-Karabakh, and after a certain time - holding of a referendum in accordance with the Azerbaijani legislation.

Azerbaijan has not seen a fair position of the Western countries concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement in accordance with UN resolutions, norms and principles of international law for a long time, Mammadov said, adding that this complicates the situation.

No decision on presidential meeting

The official also commented on a possible meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents.

Mammadov said a decision on the meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents has not been made yet.

President Ilham Aliyev’s position is that Baku does not avoid the meetings and ready for them, he said. “However, it is necessary to be confident that conditions will be created for any actions to advance the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” he added.

"The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen are trying to organize such a meeting in 2015. If such a meeting is to take place, we will try to provide information on that a few days in advance. Today, I can’t comment on anything,” he said.

The latest meeting between President Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan took place in France last October.

Europe can learn from Azerbaijan’s experience on problem refugee

Mammadov further said that Europe can learn from Azerbaijan's experience in resolving the problems of refugees.

“Some 700,000-800,000 refugees, who have arrived in Europe with a 400 million population, caused great problems. The U.S. is now considering not accepting refugees from Syria and Iraq,” the official said.

He reminded that in 1990, when Azerbaijan gained independence, it was able to cope with the refugee problem.

“During this period in terms of political instability and weak economy in the country, more than one million refugees and internally displaced people arrived in Azerbaijan. The country’s population was just 6-8 million people. However, Azerbaijan coped with this problem,” Mammadov said.

The bloody war, which flared up in the late 1980s due to Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor, left the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh and the regions adjoining it, as well as the regions bordering with Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh without homes.

Moreover, over 250,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from Armenia and became refugees due to Armenia's ethnic cleansing policy after the emergence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijanis who had displaced from their homes as result of the brutal war were forced to live in refugee camps, tents in very difficult conditions.

"Azerbaijan cooperates with Europe as part of the European Neighborhood Policy, Eastern Partnership. But they do not stress the work done by Azerbaijan to solve the problems of refugees and IDPs. Some organizations of these countries can make statements on various issues related with Azerbaijan several times a year. But they do not talk about violation of the rights of refugees and IDPs,” Mammadov said.

"This is the result of the West’s mistake and its unfair attitude to the issues," the official added.

Azerbaijan expects equal attitude, mutual respect from EU

Furthermore, Mammadov noted that Azerbaijan expects an equal attitude and mutual respect from the European Union.

He pointed out that Azerbaijan is one of the countries closely cooperating with the EU.

“Azerbaijan didn’t support the text of the Association Agreement earlier proposed to us. They propose us such an agreement, but do not mention the recognition of [Azerbaijan’s] territorial integrity,” Mammadov said.

The top official said Azerbaijan wants to sign a document on strategic partnership with the EU, adding that Azerbaijan has signed a document on strategic partnership with eight important European countries.

“If the European Union shows equal attitude and mutual respect to Azerbaijan and if the proposed document reflects its territorial integrity, the country will sign this document,” Mammadov said.

Earlier, the country proposed the EU to work out and sign a strategic partnership agreement.

--

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

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz