Baku, Azerbaijan, July 9
By Seba Aghayeva - Trend:
Representatives of the Azerbaijani community of the US state of California demanded that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs intensify efforts to settle the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, achieve the withdrawal of Armenian forces from occupied Azerbaijani territories and return of IDPs to their homes, the Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles told Trend July 9.
The representatives of the Azerbaijani community made such a demand at the meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs from the United States and France James Warlick and Pierre Andrieu and the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman Andrzej Kasprzyk.
The co-chairs informed the representatives of the Azerbaijani community of the state about the negotiation process on the peaceful settlement of the conflict.
The community representatives said that regardless of location of residence, not a single Azerbaijani will accept the occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan - Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding areas.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
They also expressed hope that the OSCE Minsk Group will note the recent decision of the European Court of Human Rights on the suit of a citizen of Azerbaijan, which confirmed the fact of occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia.
On 16 June 2015, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights announced its judgment (Merits) on the case of Chiragov and others v. Armenia (Application no. 13216/05).
The case originated in an application against the Republic of Armenia lodged with the Court on 6 April 2005 by six Azerbaijani nationals forcibly displaced from the occupied Lachin district of Azerbaijan during the Armenian aggression.
Accordingly, the conclusion must be that due to its initial and continuing aggression against Azerbaijan and military occupation of its internationally recognized territory (Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding areas), expulsion of hundreds of thousands of the citizens of Azerbaijan from the occupied territory and the denial of their return to their homes and access to their property in those areas, the Republic of Armenia bears full international responsibility for the breaches of international law that have occurred and continue to occur.
The meeting took place during the visit of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to the United States. Its initiators were the co-chairs. Activists of the Azerbaijani community living in San Francisco and the surrounding cities of the state took part in the meeting.
In 2014, the Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles organized a meeting of representatives of the community with the US co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick.
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