Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 20
By Seba Aghayeva – Trend:
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has urged the member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to make every effort to support the measures to end Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan, avoid illegal economic and other activities in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, limit all forms of cooperation with Armenia.
He was addressing the OIC Contact Group meeting on the Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan, which was held in New York on the sidelines of the 72nd Regular Session of the UN General Assembly, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said.
It was noted that for the period after the first meeting of the OIC Contact Group, the situation on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement process didn’t change, on the contrary, clashes on the frontline, as well as cases of deliberate killing of Azerbaijani civilians residing along the contact line between the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops increased.
Mammadyarov also urged the OIC countries to refrain from Armenia’s armament in order to prevent the escalation of the conflict, and ban the transit of weapons and military equipment through their territories for this purpose.
Azerbaijan relies on the consistent solidarity of the Islamic world in resolute condemnation of the use of force against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country and the occupation of its territories, Mammadyarov said.
It should be noted that during its summit in Istanbul in April 2016, OIC made a decision to establish a contact group for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which included the foreign ministers of the OIC member-states. The decision was made at Turkey’s initiative.
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.