Baku, Azerbaijan, July 8
By Elena Kosolapova – Trend:
The current status-quo of a longer-than-20-year occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the surrounding districts by Armenia with the devastating consequences for the internally displaced people is no longer bearable, Marco Wanderwitz, a German MP, said in his response to an enquiry by the Berlin office of The European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS).
On July 4 at about 20:40 (GMT+4 hours), the Armenian armed forces, using 82-mm and 120-mm mortars and grenade launchers, shelled the Alkhanly village of Azerbaijan’s Fuzuli district.
As a result of this provocation, the residents of the village Sahiba Allahverdiyeva, 50, and Zahra Guliyeva, 2, were killed. Salminaz Guliyeva, 52, who got wounded, was taken to the hospital and was operated on.
“The United Nations Security Council has already several times demanded the withdrawal of the Armenian troops [from Azerbaijan’s occupied lands],” he said. “These resolutions have to be finally followed through in order to avoid any more victims and to establish peace in the South Caucasus,” said Wanderwitz.
This week innocent civilians have sadly become - yet again - victims of the ongoing conflict around the Nagorno-Karabakh region, he noted.
“We are very worried by this news about a further escalation of the conflict,” he added. “Only negotiations can lead to a long-term solution. For that, any attacks on the civilian population have to end immediately.”
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.