BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.31
Trend:
Azerbaijani community of Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh region has issued a statement on the 27th anniversary of Gubadli district's occupation by the Armenian armed forces, Trend reports on August 31 referring to the community.
"On August 31, 1993, the Gubadli district was occupied by the Armenian armed forces. As a result of the occupation, 238 residents of Gubadli were martyred, 316 people became disabled, more than 100 people went missing, the administrative center and 93 villages were destroyed and looted, over 40,000 residents of Gubadli became internally displaced persons," the statement says.
According to the statement, as a result of the occupation, 445,000 square meters of housing stock, 4 medical institutions, 6 kindergartens, 61 secondary schools, 10 houses of culture, 24 clubs, 1 local history museum, 60 libraries, 205 recreational facilities, and 12 historical monuments were destroyed.
"The policy of illegal settlement of the occupied Azerbaijani lands by Armenia, including Gubadli, increasingly intensifying in recent years, has shown that Armenia continues to hold Azerbaijani territories under occupation and strengthen its consequences, and, thus, is not interested in a peaceful solution to the conflict,” the statement also reads.
“The Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh region states that the only solution to the conflict is the withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from all occupied Azerbaijani territories and the return of ethnic Azerbaijanis to their homelands," adds the document.
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, 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 the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.