Azerbaijan, Baku, March 14 / Trend M.Aliyev /
At a meeting between OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis and political parties, Chief of the Azerbaijani Community in Nagorno Karabakh Bayram Safarov urged international organizations to provide serious support in restoring the rights of 1 million people to stay in their homes.
"If international organizations value human rights, then they must provide strong support for restoring the rights of 1 million Azerbaijanis to live in their homes. Tough measures must be taken against Armenia, which violated their rights," Safarov said in an interview with the ruling New Azerbaijan Party's website today.
"At the meeting, we said the Azerbaijani government will free Nagorno Karabakh and the adjacent territories by any means. We stressed that we want to return our native lands," he said.
Azubalis stressed that he is informed about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and will try to resolve the issue in the framework of international law, Safarov said.
Azubalis launched his official visit to Azerbaijan on Sunday.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.