Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 19
Trend:
The OSCE Minsk Group must exert more efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.
Davutoglu made the remarks Apr. 19 during his speech at the meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg.
Davutoglu said that as a member of the OSCE Minsk Group, Turkey stands for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
"The recent situation on the line of contact of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops has once again shown that the status quo in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is unacceptable," he said.
Davutoglu also expressed concern over Armenia's shelling of the territory of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic 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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