Details added (first version posted at 13:58)
Baku, Azerbaijan, August 29
Trend:
Azerbaijan stands for substantive talks to change the existing status quo in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Elmar Mammadyarov, Azerbaijani foreign minister, who is on an official visit to Georgia.
Mammadyarov made the statement at a meeting with his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Janelidze in Tbilisi Aug. 29.
Mammadyarov added that the international community, member-states of the OSCE Minsk Group consider preservation of the status quo in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as unacceptable and inconsistent.
"The Armenian troops must be withdrawn from the occupied Azerbaijani territories, as required by the UN Security Council’s resolutions and it is necessary to put an end to the military occupation to achieve progress in the conflict settlement," said Mammadyarov cited by the Azerbaijani foreign ministry as saying.
“The peace and stability will be restored in the region as a result of the settlement of the conflict,” Mammadyarov added.
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.