Baku, Azerbaijan, May 2
Trend:
Using the expression "people of Nagorno-Karabakh" by the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and the US State Department in statements regarding holding the illegal "parliamentary election" on the territories of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia is wrong and unacceptable, the head of press service of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Hikmet Hajiyev told Trend May 2, commenting on these statements.
He went on to add that there is no concept of "people of Nagorno-Karabakh" at all. The Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan has a population that consists of Azerbaijani and Armenian communities, he said.
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 the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.