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Azerbaijan starts decisive stage to liberate occupied territories – deputy FM (UPDATE 2)

Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict Materials 13 May 2016 15:32 (UTC +04:00)
Azerbaijan has started a decisive stage to eliminate the consequences of Armenian aggression, liberate its occupied territories and restore its territorial integrity.

Details added (first version posted on 12:51)

Baku, Azerbaijan, May 13

By Seba Aghayeva - Trend:

Azerbaijan has started a decisive stage to eliminate the consequences of Armenian aggression, liberate its occupied territories and restore its territorial integrity, said Azerbaijan's Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov.

He made the remarks May 13 in Baku during the hearings in the Azerbaijani parliament on the "Recent developments along the line of contact: Problems of the international humanitarian law."

Armenia's territorial claims against Azerbaijan stand at the root of the conflict, noted the deputy minister.

Khalafov also expressed regret that the conflict is called the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"Unfortunately, the former authorities of Azerbaijan failed to prevent it and in 1992, at the time of adoption of the Helsinki document on the conflict, it was named the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," he said. "In reality, it is the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict and Armenia's territorial claims against Azerbaijan are the root of this conflict."

He noted that Armenia is interested in staging provocations in the process of settlement of the conflict and has to date staged numerous provocations along the line of contact.

"Armenia's main purpose is to protract the conflict and achieve the problem's settlement in line with its own interests," he said. "Azerbaijan has always suppressed the attempts taken to fulfill those plans."

Armenia, which is responsible for the early April clashes on the line of contact, has chosen the aggressive policy, said the deputy FM.

He added that Azerbaijan faced humanitarian problems as a result of the Armenian aggression.

"Currently, the European Union is in perplexity after having faced the problem of a million refugees, whereas Azerbaijan coped with the problem of refugees and IDPs on its own," said Khalafov.

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 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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