Azerbaijan, Baku, 21 November / Trend / Azerbaijani President sees no other side in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, besides Azerbaijan and Armenia.
"There is no other side in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, besides Azerbaijan and Armenia. That has been always well known, and the fact was confirmed by the signature of the Armenian President in the Moscow Declaration," Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at his meeting with the participants of the Baku round table entitled Azerbaijan in the 21st Century - Strategy of Development.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenia's Serzh Sargsyan and Russia's Dmitry Medvedev signed a declaration at the end of their meeting in Mein Dorf castle near Moscow on 2 November. Presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan decided to make joint efforts to normalize the situation in Caucasus and requested Foreign Ministers to make efforts to solve the [Armenian-Azerbaijani] Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The declaration calls for the settlement of the conflict in line with the principles and norms of international law and decisions and documents adopted in this respect, which will create favourable conditions for economic development and comprehensive cooperation in the region.
President said that mere signing of the declaration is not enough. " Armenia's political will is required to make a sound decision - to withdraw Armenian troops from the territory that has never belonged to Armenia, to stop aggression, to pursue a policy meeting the international norms. In this case, peace in the Caucasus will be ensured very soon," he said.
According to President Aliyev, adoption of the Moscow Declaration that was signed on the initiative of the Russian President is a positive fact. "The Declaration clearly specifies main mechanisms to settle the conflict. Those are resolutions and decisions meeting international norms and rights. The Declaration is an important political document stipulating for the ways of settlement of the conflict, and they base on international standards. The guarantee section of the Declaration specifies the guarantees of every stage of the settlement," President said.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan lost the Nagorno-Karabakh, except of Shusha and Khojali, in December 1991. In 1992-93, Armenian Armed Forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and Nagorno-Karabakh's seven surrounding regions. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The countries keep on peace negotiating through the OSCE Minsk Group.