Details added (first version posted on 15:42)

Baku, Azerbaijan, May 31

By Seba Aghayeva - Trend:

Another meeting on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can be held in June 2016 in order to achieve significant progress for changing the status quo, Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said May 31 speaking at the North Atlantic Council.

Azerbaijan's internationally recognized borders have been violated for over 20 years already, 20 percent of the country's territory is under occupation and over a million Azerbaijanis were subjected to ethnic cleansing, said the minister.

Mammadyarov noted that the status quo, which is based on the fact of occupation, remains the main source of tension.

"The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and the international community consider the status quo unreliable, inconsistent and unacceptable," he said. "In order to change the status quo, it is necessary to put an end to the occupation, the Armenian armed forces should withdraw from Azerbaijan's occupied lands."

Talking about Armenia's threatening Azerbaijan with "dirty bomb", Armenia's non-fulfillment of the international commitments on non-proliferation of the weapons of mass destruction, Mammadyarov said that Yerevan continues its policy aimed at disrupting the negotiation process.

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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