Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28
Trend:
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to avoid escalation.
“It is important to avoid escalation, because there is no military solution to this conflict and its persistence is holding back the region,” he said after a meeting with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in NATO Headquarters on Monday.
Jens Stoltenberg also noted that the NATO fully supports the OSCE Minsk Group’s efforts for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement.
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.