Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8
Trend:
Only Armenia and Azerbaijan are the parties to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry, told Trend June 8.
He was commenting on statements by officials of some countries to attract illegal regime established in Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region to the negotiating process.
"As noted in the OSCE documents, Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh region are the interested parties in the conflict," said Hajiyev, adding that they have equal rights.
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.