Azerbaijan, Baku, March 11 / Trend E.Tariverdiyeva /
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov believes it is difficult to say what level of confidence exists between the sides, when they are in a state of unannounced war.
"The fact of occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by Armenia, given realization of total ethnic cleansings on the given lands, of course, cannot contribute to increase in the level of trust. The reason, as they say, is obvious," Mammadyarov said in his interview with Mediamax.
He said the foreign policy is the continuation of the internal one. The stronger the state is economically, the stronger is its foreign policy. The resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is built on norms and principles of the international law and the decisions and documents, approved in those frames, as it is mentioned in Meiendorf Declaration, signed by the Presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russian on Nov. 2, 2008.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
"The importance to base on international law in the conflict settlement is what creates the possibility to avoid internal political motives, since both Azerbaijan and Armenia, becoming members of the international organizations, have taken upon themselves the corresponding commitments, which should be fulfilled.
The occupation of territories of another state and ethnic cleansings on those territories are not included in those commitments," Mammadyarov stressed.
Mammadyarov said the withdrawal of Armenian troops from Azerbaijani territories will create a completely different situation in the region.
"We will be able to speak, at least, of predictability of situation development, opening of communications, reestablishment of lost confidence," he added.
Timeframes for voting over the Nagorno-Karabakh status will complicate the situation. It is necessary to carry out huge preparation works, break the ice in interrelations, reestablish confidence, return the population, and create conditions for their safe habitation together, he said.
"One should not hold voting at gun point and under pressure. Any hurry in order to preserve timeframes in such sensitive and fragile issues can aggravate the situation even more and make all the efforts on peaceful settlement null and void," Mammadyarov said.
He said the parties have to drive the work on the detailed Peace Agreement into the time frame in order to avoid the temptation to perpetual negotiations without changing the situation on the ground.
"Unfortunately, we lost more than a year, although on March 5, at the meeting of the Presidents in Sochi, one could observe certain positive trends to advance towards the work over the detailed Peace Agreement," he added.
Azerbaijan has the reality of occupation of about 2o percent of its territories by Armenian Armed Forces and as a result a contact line, where from both sides the military are placed with weapons in their hands.
He said this conflict is not frozen and there is real threat of use of weapon every minute.
"The fact of the murder of a nine-year-old Azerbaijani boy, who is far, as to his age, from being suspected of being a military, is evidenced to this. How can one shoot at children? This is sacrilege," he stressed.
Mammadyarov said to liquidate such danger and preserve the life of people, Armenia must withdraw its troops from occupied Azerbaijani territories, thus liquidating the very reason of possible use of force.
"Armenia, by withdrawing the troops from occupied territories, can itself eliminate the reasons, which create a basis for possible escalation of the situation, that is, liquidate the threat of use of force. Only in that case it will be possible to achieve a stable, durable peace in the region," he said.