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Azerbaijan Wants NATO to Respond to Deployment of Armament in Its Occupied Lands

Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict Materials 24 April 2008 16:47 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, 24 April / corr. Trend I. Alizade/ Azerbaijan wants NATO to take measures in order to prevent Armenia's deployment of armament obtained by illegal ways in Azerbaijani occupied territories, production of drugs and using this territory as a transit for the transportation of drugs.

"If the armament deployed in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan is used, it will pose a danger not only for the South Caucasus, but also for the NATO member states," said to Trend Siyavush Novruzov, the member of standing parliament commission on security and defense and Azerbaijani delegation in NATO Parliament Assembly.

According to Novruzov, all these issues will be discussed in the spring session of NATO PA at the end of May in Berlin and they will demand to put these issues into the agenda of upcoming meetings.

The NATO summit held in Bucharest passed a resolution on inviolability of territorial integrity of countries including Azerbaijan. This document is on the agenda of PA as well.

Armenia occupied 20% of Azerbaijani territory - Nagorno-Karabakh and 7 surrounding regions. The occupation began in 1988. Azerbaijan lost control of Nagorno-Karabakh (excluding Shusha and Khojali) till December 1991. In 1992-93 Shusha and Khojali and 7 regions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh were occupied. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia reached a ceasefire agreement. The parties are still holding peace talks.

OSCE Minsk Group acts as a mediator for the peaceful settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with co-chairmen from three countries - U.S., Russia and France.

According to Novruzov, fight against illegal turnover of drugs, illegal armament trade and war on terrorism is the principle objective of NATO. "Therefore, NATO should respond to the situation in occupied territory of Azerbaijan," he said.

Azerbaijani delegation will also raise the issue of presidential elections in Armenia.

The correspondent can be contacted at - [email protected]

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