Kazakhstan, Astana /corr. Trend E.Huseynov / The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, is sure that the only way to peacefully settle the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the restoration of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and the return of refugees to their native land.
"The only way out of the situation is the restoration of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and the refugees' returning to their native land. There cannot be any other alternatives," said Ilham Aliyev, in his interview with Kazakhstan's Express K newspaper.
The conflict between the two countries of South Caucasus began in 1988 due to territorial claims by Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia has occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani land including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding Districts. Since 1992, these territories have been under the occupation of the Armenian Forces. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France and USA) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.
"Currently from the point of view of the conflict settlement, we proceed from four UN Resolutions which require immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh. Similar resolutions have also been passed by the Council of Europe. The only way out is the withdrawal of the Armenia's occupant forces from seven districts around Nagorno-Karabakh and returning the refugees (more than 700,000), including refugees from Armenia (250,000), to their native land. In future, we are prepared to provide high autonomy status to Nagorno-Karabakh," the President said.
According to the President, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh demand independence, but it will never take place. "The Azeri people and the State will never agree to this. The international community will never recognize it. Recently they held 'presidential elections' in the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and it was condemned by everyone. The USA, France, Russia, European Union, Turkey and many countries will never recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state, we have tried to explain this to the Armenian side, which has unfortunately only taken an unconstructive position," Aliyev said.
According to the State Head, Azerbaijan is still adhering to the peaceful process and considers that the negotiations process is not completed. "Insincerity by the opposition and its efforts to tell untruths to the mediators and prolong time will not yield any results. As time passes, their position is weakening, but our position is becoming stronger. Perhaps individual politicians are not interested in the return of the Azerbaijani land. Maybe they are taking an unconstructive position for the sake of their political ambitions. But this is not of interest to the Armenian people. If the Armenian people understand this and put an end to Armenia's occupation policy, relations between Baku and Yerevan may normalize and the Armenian people may achieve more from co-operating with us than overseas," Aliyev concluded.