Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5
By Elena Kosolapova – Trend:
It is inevitable that there will be more innocent victims if the UN Security Council resolutions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are not enforced, Ziba Norman, director of the UK Transatlantic & Caucasus Studies Institute, told Trend.
“There are numerous UN resolutions in place and they must be enforced,” she said, adding that how this can be done remains the most important issue.
“What remains to be answered is how these resolutions are to be enforced, otherwise it is inevitable that there will be more innocent victims.”
It begs the question of just how serious the stakeholders are about resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with international law, Ziba Norman added.
On July 4 at about 20:40 (GMT+4 hours), the Armenian armed forces again violated ceasefire and, using 82-mm and 120-mm mortars and grenade launchers, shelled Azerbaijani positions and territories where the civilian population lives, namely the Alkhanli village of the country’s Fuzuli district, thereby grossly violating the requirements of international law, the Azerbaijani defense ministry said earlier.
As a result of this provocation, the residents of the village Sakhiba Guliyeva, 50, and Zakhra Guliyeva, 2, were killed. Servinaz Guliyeva, 52, who got wounded, was taken to the hospital and was operated on.
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.