Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Azerbaijan appraised a decision of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to establish a contact group that will deal with the Armenian aggression towards the country's territorial integrity.

Elmar Mammadyarov, Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister made the statement as part of a preparatory meeting of the OIC Foreign Ministers, which was held in Istanbul on April 12.

Azerbaijan, which has been suffering from Armenia’s aggressive policy for many years, has repeatedly called on the international community to condemn Yerevan’s policy against Baku.

Numerous international organizations, high-ranking officials have shown an interest in this issue, but the OSCE Minsk Group has been the sole negotiator of the long-lasting Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict since its beginning.

However, the situation has changed dramatically as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) announced its plans to establish a contact group for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Addressing the event, Mammadyarov said Azerbaijan has always attached great importance to its relations with OIC.

“We are proud that during our non-permanent membership in the UN Security Council a special meeting devoted to strengthening the partnership synergy between the UN and OIC was held at UN Headquarters,” Mammadyarov said while speaking at the meeting. “We strongly believe that this practice must continue, as it provides a good practice of expressing views on risks and challenges that our world has faced."

Only throughout past years, Baku has hosted several OIC events such as the Ministerial Conference on the Role of Women in the Development of OIC Member States, the Conference of OIC Labor Ministers. Moreover, upon the proposal of the Azerbaijani President, the OIC Labor center was endorsed to be established in Baku.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, in turn, believes that the OIC should make its contribution to the settlement of the conflict within the internationally recognized borders, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

The OIC always kept the issue of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in focus. Its member states expressed concern over the occupation of Azerbaijan territories by Armenia as well as the looting and destruction of archeological, cultural and religious monuments in those areas, including those Islamic monuments included in the resolution adopted by the organization during the OIC summit in Dakar, Senegal in 2008.

Moreover, the organization has also repeatedly slammed Armenia for the destruction of Islamic artifacts in the invaded lands.

After the aggravation of the situation in Azerbaijan’s occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region, OIC urged Armenia to immediately liberate occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers. The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani population. Azerbaijan responded with a counter-attack, which led to liberation of several strategic heights and settlements.

Military operations were stopped on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on Apr. 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry earlier said. Ignoring the agreement, the Armenian side again started violating the ceasefire.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova

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