Baku, Azerbaijan, June 14
Trend:
First Vice Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Ziyafet Asgarov has said he does not expect positive results from the upcoming visit of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to the South Caucasus region.
The OSCE Minsk Group refuses to take responsibility for settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, making the conflict sides liable, he told reporters in Baku June 14.
Mediators always say that the conflict sides should come to an agreement themselves and only offer their support, according to him.
Asgarov noted that if Azerbaijan and Armenia could come to an agreement by themselves, there would be no need for the Minsk Group.
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs should clearly point to Armenia as an aggressor country and demand that it leaves the Azerbaijani territories it occupied, he added.
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.