Azerbaijan, Baku, November 18/ Trend , corr N. Abdullayeva/ The official Baku says favorable international legal and intermediary basis have been created for the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Today there is good international legal and intermediary basis to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov said in his interview with Mediamax.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.
Commenting on the statement of the US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza who described coordination of basic principles of settlement of the conflict until the end of this year or beginning of next year as "quite possible", Azerbaijani Foreign Minister stated that he would like to hope for this "possibility" and given the current situation in the region, to hope for sober analysis of development of events by the Armenian government so that sides can reach positive results.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister said it is impossible to determine status from both moral and even technical point of view until forces are withdrawn and displaced persons return to Nagorno-Karabakh. "We will be governed by international law and national legislation while determining status of Nagorno-Karabakh," Mammadyarov said.
As to the deployment of international peacekeepers in the conflict zones, Minister said in this case, if it is possible to come to understanding with international peacekeeping forces, they must play stabilizing role which will enable to create confidence between Armenian and Azerbaijani communities.
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