Azernews.Az

By Aynur Karimova

Heavy fighting erupted between Armenian and Azerbaijani Armed Forces in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region on April 2 is the result of the ignorance policy of the international community.

The fresh fighting which is regarded as the worst since the ceasefire deal signed, is nothing but the very result of inactivity of the international community, which turned blind eye to the injustice towards Azerbaijan.

Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions of Azerbaijan have been under the control of the Armenian military and separatists since a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan ended in 1994. Over 20 years of negotiations have brought little progress in resolving the conflict, though a fragile truce has been in place.

The world powers paid no attention to the unjustified and tragic situation over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which again aggravated on April 2 after the Armenian military units in the occupied lands started shelling Azerbaijan’s positions.

To protect civilian population, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched counter attacks and as a result, the Azerbaijani troops retook hills around the village of Talish, as well as Seysulan settlement, and also took over Lele Tepe hill located in the direction of Fizuli region.

Despite Azerbaijan's decision on unilateral suspension of the counter-attacks and response measures in the territories occupied by Armenia, as well as calls of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and world community to cease military operations and restore the ceasefire, the Armenian forces resumed shelling of Azerbaijani positions along the line of contact on the night of April 4, the situation on the contact line deteriorated again.

Baku, which has suffered from Yerevan's aggressive policy for more than two decades, has repeatedly stated that the presence of the Armenian Armed Forces in the occupied territories is a major obstacle to the settlement of the conflict and threat to the regional stability.

Despite the fact that the UN Security Council adopted four resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) demanding the Armenian troops to withdraw from Azerbaijan's occupied territories, they were ignored and have not been implemented by Yerevan yet.

Although the OSCE Minsk Group, which is in charge of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as other international institutions have repeatedly made statements on the conflict resolution, all of them stayed on paper without implementation.

The world countries, being well informed about the massacre carried out by the Armenian militaries in the occupied Azerbaijani territories against ethnic Azerbaijanis - not depending on their sex and age - have not imposed any sanction on Armenia, which has led to today's complicated situation in the region.

Today, Armenia, with an attempt to undermine the peace process, commits acts of sabotage on the contact line of troops, and tries to prevent a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The Armenian leadership is blocking all peace initiatives and refusing peace through making everything possible to maintain the status quo.

Baku has repeatedly announced that it seeks peaceful settlement of the conflict, but it does not mean that the negotiations are the only way of the settlement. Azerbaijani Army has no difficulties in liberation of Nagorno Karabakh from the occupation, and the country enjoys every right to liberate its historical lands, including the military option.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

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