Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 3
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva - Trend:
Azerbaijan has brought a Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement formula at the OSCE Ministerial Council being held in Belgrade.
It was voiced by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.
Amid unclear calls for peace and settlement, Mammadyarov's speech regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement contained several distinct items. In case of their fulfillment, the region will really achieve peace.
Baku voiced a very important message. It appealed the international community not to encourage aggressor Armenia and not to treat it with the same understanding as the global institutions and the OSCE member-states do towards a victim of its aggression - Azerbaijan.
It is obvious that in case of exerting pressure on Yerevan by all international institutions, the Armenian government will reconsider its occupant policy and think over the withdrawal of its occupation troops from the territory of Azerbaijan.
The minister also presented the most real project of confidence- building measures between people who must live in Nagorno-Karabakh. He said that that the end of the Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan and the withdrawal of Armenian troops will be a major confidence-building measure that will completely change the dynamics of the peace process and open up great opportunities for the development of the South Caucasus. This would open the way for the IDPs to return home safely and with dignity. This would normalize the relations and restore the communications in the region. This would create the real conditions for the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region to discuss their joint future within Azerbaijan.
Taking into account the mediators' constant appeals to Armenian and Azerbaijani people to start creating the confidence-building measures, I would like to advise them to listen to the real advice which clearly describes the step by step process of reconciliation between the two peoples, living in a state of war more than twenty years.
I would like to hope that those gathering at the OSCE Ministerial Council will pay attention and try to understand that all possible solutions to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must start with the unconditional withdrawal of the troops from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and refugees' return home.
Elmira Tariverdiyeva, head of Trend's Russian News Service
