Baku, Azerbaijan, May 14
Trend:
The mechanism for investigating the incidents should be a part of the process of withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from occupied Azerbaijani lands, Hikmet Hajiyev, spokesman for Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, told Trend May 14.
He was commenting on Armenian media reports which said that during his visit to France, Armenia's Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian has allegedly reached an agreement on the supply of equipment that will record the ceasefire violation cases.
"We are unaware of what was concretely discussed by Nalbandian in France. The whole international community is aware that Armenia has occupied Azerbaijani lands by using force and the main reason of the conflict is the presence of the Armenian armed forces on the occupied territories," said Hajiyev.
"As for the mechanism of investigating the incidents, Azerbaijan has repeatedly said that this auxiliary mechanism can be considered as one of the elements of the process of withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied Azerbaijan lands," he said. "Otherwise, this mechanism can serve for maintaining the status quo based on the fact of occupation."
Hajiyev noted that the heads of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries have repeatedly pointed to the unacceptability of maintaining the status quo.
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.