Azerbaijan, Baku, May 7 / Trend, M. Aliyev /
Azerbaijani army is capable of fulfilling its tasks in a very short period of time, the First Deputy Speaker, Chairman of the Committee on Security and Defense of the Azerbaijani parliament Ziyafet Askerov told journalists today.
"If Azerbaijan's peace negotiations will be unsuccessful, then its statement to liberate lands will be not just rhetoric, but a reality. Today Azerbaijan's military budget and its general budget, as well as technical training of the armed forces and combat readiness of soldiers make it possible to say that we can liberate our lands in a very short period of time," Askerov said.
He said there is again some hope that the negotiation process can yield any result.
"But if we see that the Armenian side is engaged in new imitation and negotiates just for the sake of negotiations and stalls for time, then believe that the Azerbaijani army is capable of fulfilling its tasks in a short period of time," Askerov said.
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 7 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.