Kazakhstan, Astana, Dec. 1 / corr A.Maratov /
The ongoing armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan continues to represent a major threat to international and regional peace and stability, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated to the OSCE Summit in Astana on Dec. 1.
"As a result of the policy of ethnic cleansing conducted by Armenia against Azerbaijanis 20 percent of the territory of Azerbaijan is under occupation. One million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced persons in their own land. Armenia continues to occupy not only Nagorno-Karabakh, but also seven other regions of Azerbaijan," the President said.
According to President Aliyev, Armenia destroyed Azerbaijani cities and villages, homes and sacred place, graves of ancestries and mosques. "They committed war crimes, genocide in Khojali, where hundreds of civilians were killed by Armenian armed forces only because they were Azerbaijanis. Among the innocent victims of Khojali more than one hundred were children," the Azerbaijani president stressed.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a historic part of Azerbaijan. It is internationally recognized part of Azerbaijan, Aliyev said
" Today Armenia continues to use force for sustaining the control over the occupied territories and to hinder the return of the IDPs to their homes," Aliyev underscored. "But nevertheless Azerbaijan was and remains committed to the peaceful negotiations and still hopes that they will bring results."
According to the Azerbaijani president, solution to the conflict must be based only on the respect to the norms and principles of international law, implementation of four Security Council resolution, decisions of OSCE, and resolutions of European Parliament, the Council of Europe, and other international organizations.
"But Armenia instead of negotiating in good face with a view to finding a durable solution to the conflict as soon as possible gives preference to escalation with unpredictable consequences. Armenia permanently violates the ceasefire regime, conducts military training in the occupied territories, tries to rename the historical names of our occupied cities and villages," Aliyev said.
According to Aliyev, Armenia illegally settles civilians in the occupied territories, tries to make the situation irreversible, and peace process meaningless. "Illegal activity by Armenia on the occupied territories was reflected in the report of the OSCE fact-finding mission to the region in 2005."
"The way how Armenia behaves during the negotiation process leads us to the conclusion that Armenia does not want peace, does not want to liberate the occupied territories but want to keep the status-quo as long as they can and make negotiation process endless," Aliyev underscored.
OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992, negotiations are held for almost 20 years but without any results, Aliyev added.
"Azerbaijan values the proposals that the Minsk group co-chairing countries have elaborated over past 6 years within the Prague process. We are ready to continue negotiations and to finalize them as soon as possible and to achieve the solution which will be based on the norms and principles of the international law within the framework of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan," Aliyev stressed.
President Aliyev also expressed his gratitude to President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Kazakh friend for excellent organization of this summit, for warm hospitality and of the chairing of OSCE in surround the year.