Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.5
Trend:
Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Political Affairs and Security of the OSCE PA, MP of Milli Majlis (Parliament) of Azerbaijan Azay Guliyev made a press statement Dec.5 in connection with the 21st meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Basel.
He said that US Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking on the theme of human rights protection and the Ukrainian crisis at the meeting, mentioned neither the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, nor the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and the violated rights of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis expelled by the Armenians from native lands.
The MP said that a senior representative of the US, the co-chair country of the Minsk Group, could express his attitude to the issue of the Azerbaijani territories remaining under the occupation for many years, and give a political assessment of Armenia's aggressive policy from the rostrum.
In his statement, the MP also said that during his talks with political experts, international analysts even before the speech of the US official representative, they expressed hope that Kerry would touch upon the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in his speech. "Unfortunately, the hopes once again failed to materialize," said the statement. "Not only didn't the US Secretary of State mention the occupation policy of Armenia, he didn't touch upon the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at all. He might not have considered it important."
Guliyev said that this situation causes questions. "Why does the US harshly react to the incident related to the destruction of the Armenian military helicopter in the air space of Azerbaijan, expressing concern about the situation of human rights in Azerbaijan, however, not being interested in the tragic fate of the Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons, the Azerbaijanis taken hostage in the occupied territory, in Kalbajar?" the MP said.
The MP said that analyzing all of the above mentioned, it is possible to once again be sure that John Kerry and the US State Department are not interested in the fate of the Azerbaijani citizens, deprived of their most basic rights as a result of the Armenian aggression.
"They use the concept of "human rights violations" only in their own interests, as a means of exerting pressure," said Guliyev in the statement. "Unfortunately, some NGOs and political parties either do not fully understand it, or implicitly obey their orders."
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 two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.