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Baku Believes Latest Situation in Armenia Will Not Affect Settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict Materials 26 February 2008 12:12 (UTC +04:00)
Baku Believes Latest Situation in   Armenia Will Not Affect Settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

Azerbaijan, Baku, 26 February / Trend corr. I.Alizadeh / Baku considers that the destabilization of the situation in Armenia after the latest presidential elections will not affect the negotiation process to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"I believe that the opinion by the Armenian Foreign Minister in which he stated that the process taking place in Armenia would have a negative effect on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, was used as an argument to cause interest by the authorities and put pressure on certain people," Novruz Mammadov, the chief of the International Relations Department at Executive Administration of President, stated to Trend .

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian stated to journalists on 25 February that the internal situation in Armenia may have a negative effect on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Mammadov noted that the Central Election Commission of Armenia announced that the victory of Serzh Sargsyan as a result of the presidential elections and this decision will not be changed. "Settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is possible only by utilising international legal standards and within the framework of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. There is no other way to settle the conflict. If the Armenian State cares about the Armenian population then the government will take constructive positions," Mammadov said.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988, due to the Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, the Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven neighbouring districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement which ended the active hostilities. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding the peaceful negotiations.

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